TORONTO -- The usernames and passwords of more than 172 million accounts were exposed in a hack of the company behind the popular game “Words with Friends,” according to a data monitoring website.
In September, the game developer Zynga announced that player account information may have been illegally accessed by outside hackers. At the time, the company didn’t reveal how many customers were affected and said it was an “unfortunate” reality of doing business.
Zynga said they don’t believe any financial information was accessed during the cyberattack.
The data breach monitoring website Have I Been Pwned, which allows customers to check if their personal information has been compromised, now says the hack exposed 172,869,660 email addresses alongside usernames and passwords.
The passwords were stored as “salted SHA-1 hashes," according to the website, which means they had additional protections that would make them difficult for hackers to decipher.
Have I Been Pwned ranks the Zynga hack as the 10th largest data breach in its catalogue.
When the breach was first announced, Zynga said they immediately launched an investigation and hired third-party forensics firms to assist them. They also said they had “taken steps” to protect affected users’ accounts from invalid logins.
Zynga also said they’re in the process of notifying users that may have been impacted.
“The security of our player data is extremely important to us. We are working hard to address this matter and remain committed to supporting our community,” the developer said.
Concerned Zynga customers have been advised to visit the company’s support page for more information on how they can protect their data.
