The hack stole emails and hashed passwords from 808,000 users A recent data breach at Epic Games may have been avoided if the company had simply installed a security patch.On Monday, Epic Games reported that its internet forums had been compromised. The leaked data includes email addresses and hashed passwords taken from legacy forums at Infinity Blade, previous Unreal Tournament games, and an archived Gears of War forum.Epic Games declined to explain how the leak occurred, but a website that stores information on data breaches said hackers were responsible and that 808,000 users are affected.The anonymous attackers targeted the vBulletin forum software on Aug. 11, according to the website Leaked Source, which has been in contact with the hackers. It was done by exploiting an SQL injection vulnerability that vBulletin patched back in June. The hackers then supplied Leaked Source with a copy of the stolen data.Although the stolen passwords may not be crackable, the hackers still came away with other information including usernames, IP addresses, and birthdays, Leaked Source said in an email. The breach underscores the need for companies to quickly update their software and to test them for vulnerabilities, security firms said on Tuesday.SQL injection attacks have been around for more than a decade, but they still remain a problem, said John Smith, a principal solution architect at Veracode. The company has found that one in five enterprise applications had at least one SQL Injection vulnerability.IT administrators may face a challenge patching every bit of old software they run, but they still need to develop processes to ensure that everything is up to date, said Deral Heiland, a researcher at Rapid7. “Although Epic claims that most of the password hashes are not easily cracked, it’s important for users to remember that with motivation and time nothing is impossible,” he said in an email.The danger is that users may have used the same passwords across multiple internet accounts.“If you have been active on these forums since July 2015, we recommend you change your password on any site where you use the same password,” Epic Games said on Monday. The company said its current Unreal Engine and Unreal Tournament forum were also breached, but no password data was stolen. Related content news Google Chrome zero-day jumps onto CISA's known vulnerability list A serious security flaw in Google Chrome, which was discovered under active exploitation in the wild, is a new addition to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency’s Known Exploited vulnerabilities catalog. By Jon Gold Oct 03, 2023 3 mins Zero-day vulnerability brandpost The advantages and risks of large language models in the cloud Understanding the pros and cons of LLMs in the cloud is a step closer to optimized efficiency—but be mindful of security concerns along the way. By Daniel Prizmant, Senior Principal Researcher at Palo Alto Networks Oct 03, 2023 5 mins Cloud Security news Arm patches bugs in Mali GPUs that affect Android phones and Chromebooks The vulnerability with active exploitations allows local non-privileged users to access freed-up memory for staging new attacks. By Shweta Sharma Oct 03, 2023 3 mins Android Security Vulnerabilities news UK businesses face tightening cybersecurity budgets as incidents spike More than a quarter of UK organisations think their cybersecurity budget is inadequate to protect them from growing threats. By Michael Hill Oct 03, 2023 3 mins CSO and CISO Risk Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe