Japanese videogame developer Sega said on Sunday that information belonging to 1.3 million customers has been stolen from its database, the latest in a rash of global cyber attacks against videogame companies.
Names, birth dates, email addresses and encrypted passwords of users of Sega Pass online network members had been compromised, Sega said in a statement, though payment data such as credit card numbers was safe. Sega Pass had been shut down.
?We are deeply sorry for causing trouble to our customers. We want to work on strengthening security,? said Yoko Nagasawa, a Sega spokeswoman, adding it is unclear when the firm would restart Sega Pass.
The company says its online system has been taken offline and all users? passwords have been reset.
The attack against Sega, a division of Sega Sammy Holdings that makes game software such as Sonic the Hedgehog as well as slot machines, follows other recent significant breaches including Citigroup, which said over 360,000 accounts were hit in May, and the International Monetary Fund.
The drama surrounding the recent round of videogame breaches paled compared to what PlayStation maker Sony experienced following two high-profile attacks that surfaced in April.
Those breaches led to the theft of account data for more than 100 million customers, making it the largest ever hacking of data outside the financial services industry.
Sega Europe, a division of Sega that runs the Sega Pass network, immediately notified Sega and the network customers after it found out about the breach on Thursday, Nagasawa said.
The hacker group Lulz Security, which has been involved in a number of high profile attacks, including one against Sega rival Nintento, has denied involvement in the Sega case.
Instead it showed some sympathy for the company on its Twitter feed. ?We want to help you destroy the hackers that attacked you. We love the Dreamcast, these people are going down,? it said.
Sony suffered one of the biggest data breaches since the advent of the internet, with personal data from 100 million accounts compromised.
The attacks forced the company to halt its Qriocity online music and video distribution services and PlayStation Network online gaming for more than a month. Sony also suffered attacks on websites including in Greece, Thailand and Indonesia, and on the Canadian site of mobile phone company Sony Ericsson.
Websites of major media, game makers, banks and the US government have been constant targets of international hackers. Nintendo, Citigroup, the CIA and the Malaysian government have recently come under hacker attacks.