218M Words with Friends Players Compromised in Data Breach

A cybercriminal operating under the alias Gnosticplayers has broken into the Words with Friends database and gained access to 218 million player records, The Hacker News reports.

The popular puzzle game is owned by Zynga, one of the biggest names in the social gaming market with other well-known offerings, including FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and Zynga Poker. Zynga issued a disclosure on September 12 to say some player data may have been obtained by unauthorized parties; now, a new report sheds light on the extent of the security incident.

Gnosticplayers, the same cybercriminal also reportedly behind the Collection #1 and Collection #2 data dumps earlier this year, told The Hacker News he was able to breach a Words with Friends database containing more than 218 million user records. The incident affects players using iOS and Android devices who installed and registered for the game on or before September 2.

A sample of the stolen data revealed the range of user data exposed: names, email addresses, login IDs, hashed and salted passwords, requested password reset tokens, provided phone numbers, Facebook ID if the user had connected, and Zynga account ID, the report states.

The attacker also claims to have accessed information belonging to 7 million players of the also-popular Draw Something game, as well as a game called OMGPOP that is discontinued, The Hacker News found. Exposed data included plaintext passwords.

Read more details here.

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