Words with Friends security breach has millions of players possibly affected

What you need to know

  • Zynga, the company behind the popular Words with Friends game, had a recent security breach.
  • In their statement, Zynga explained that it appears no financial information was reached but caution is urged all the same.
  • If you were one of the players of this game, you should change your password and take other precautions.

Zynga, the developers of the Words with Friends game ( a Scrabble-esque title) have confirmed that the company suffered a recent security breach. In their statement, Zynga believes that financial info was not accessed during the security breach. Nonetheless, caution is advised and some players are being asked to change their passwords.

Cyber attacks are one of the unfortunate realities of doing business today. We recently discovered that certain player account information may have been illegally accessed by outside hackers. An investigation was immediately commenced, leading third-party forensics firms were retained to assist, and we have contacted law enforcement.

Zynga goes on to state that steps have been taken to prevent this from affecting players. On the topic of platform-specific passwords, such as your Android, iOS or Facebook password, Zynga states that "...we have no indication that this information was involved in the event."

According to The Hacker News, the person responsible was a hacker who goes by the pseudonym of Gnosticplayers, someone who is claiming responsibility for this hack and a hack that took place earlier in the year. Gnosticplayers is claiming that the data accessed included passwords, email addresses, names, Facebook IDs and more.

Zynga also has a list of additional recommended steps for keeping your account secure. If you are still interested in deleting any personal data that Zynga has collected, you can request a deletion at this link.

We'll keep you updated as any further information breaks for this news.

Samuel Tolbert

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on PlayStation on Android Central. You can find him on Twitter @SamuelTolbert