Yet another game publisher has admitted it has felt the sting of dealing with a cyber attack on its web site. Gamesindustry.biz (free registration required) reports that the UK-based publisher Codemasters said in a statement, ""On Friday 20th, there was an attempt to gain administrative access to the Codemasters.com website. This admin access may have allowed alterations to our company website."
Codemasters said in its statement that the company "responded swiftly" to the incident and shut down the company"s web site "for a few hours" in order to fix a security hole. The web site was then brought back online. While there"s no word on who is responsible for the cyber attack, the overall effects appear to be minimal. According to Codemasters, "While some staff admin names were obtained, passwords were all encrypted." It added that " ... we are reviewing all of our websites and systems to ensure we are as safe as possible, especially as many games companies have been popular targets for this sort of activity recently."
As we have reported extensively over the past month, Sony"s Playstation Network and the online MMO servers of its Sony Online Entertainment division were shut down for weeks due to a cyber attack on Sony"s systems. Other non-gaming divisions of Sony have also faced their own cyber attacks. Earlier this month, Square Enix admitted that a cyber attack on some of its web sites, including the official Deus Ex Human Revolution web site, resulted in hackers taking a number of email addresses and resumes from the company"s servers.