2K confirms user data stolen in recent support desk hack
2K2K was caught up in a hack in September, with players receiving malware from the developer’s support desk. The company has since confirmed some user data was stolen in the breach, including emails, but no financial details or passwords were compromised.
It’s been a rough few weeks for Take-Two Interactive. First, a major Rockstar breach led to a number of GTA 6 leaks ahead of schedule, then the publisher’s other major arm in 2K faced a major support desk hack which compromised some players’ accounts.
The company acknowledged it within hours on September 20, but has since confirmed to some players their data was stolen and uploaded for sale. It included gamertags, emails, and other information used by customer support to identify players.
“We are contacting you to let you know that an unauthorized third party gained access to, and a copy of, a limited volume of your personal data held in 2K’s helpdesk system and made it available for sale,” 2K told affected players in an email.
“We want to emphasize at the outset that keeping personal data safe and secure is very important to us, and we deeply regret that this has happened.
“Following further investigation, we discovered that the unauthorized third party accessed and copied some of the personal data we record about you when you contact us for support: the name given when contacting us, email address, helpdesk identification number, gamertag, and console details.”
2K has suggested players set up multi-factor authentication on their accounts and change their passwords if they have been contacted by the developer. A statement on their support site added players should restart their computers if they clicked on malicious links.
They did stress, however, no financial information or passwords were stolen in the breach.
“We do not believe the unauthorized third-party accessed or copied the account information of any of our players,” they continued. “However, we recommend that you look out for suspicious activity across your accounts and be vigilant for unauthorized third parties trying to leverage the incident to harm you.”
The developer has also assured players their support desk is “secure” and all emails from the company from here are legitimate. It’s unclear how many players were affected by the data breach.