Bethesda Site Latest Target for Hackers

In news that is becoming as regular as a weather report, another big game publisher’s web site has been compromised by hackers. In a blog post on Monday, Bethesda Softworks announced an intrusion in their web site network that “may have” exposed user names, addresses, and passwords. Bethesda’s post says no “personal financial information” was taken, but still recommended that users on their site change their passwords.

The theft has been claimed by LulzSec, the hacker cabal that everyone’s loving to hate. Beyond their intent of doing it “for the lulz,” LulzSec wasn’t clear on exactly why they went after Bethesda, and their Twitter account has been characteristically sardonic with negotiations, stating they’ll keep Bethesda’s user database from being released if the company gives “more info on Skyrim,” yet adding “we are going to embarrass you anyway. :D” While Bethesda wasn’t specific on how many users were compromised, LulzSec posted another tweet that referenced “200,000+” users with data that could be released, including information on players of their latest title, Brink.

The latest game company to announce it was hacked was Codemasters, who reported a theft of user names, addresses, phone numbers and birth dates on June 3. No one has claimed responsibility for that one yet.