Skip to main content

Long read: How TikTok's most intriguing geolocator makes a story out of a game

Where in the world is Josemonkey?

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

The War Z hack didn't apparently jeopardise game accounts

Post-mortem complete.

Controversial zombie game The War Z was taken offline for half-a-day at the start of the month because security was breached by hackers.

Publisher OP Productions investigated and announced at the weekend that, phew, the game's database was unscathed. "We did not find definitive evidence that our game account database was accessed," OP said.

The game's forum was breached, though, and those cheeky hackers found administrator details and used their dev-level game accounts to wreak a wee bit of havoc.

Not sure what they're so happy about.

"They were able to ban up to several dozens of players randomly," OP said, probably tutting. "We disabled the hacked accounts, identified the wrongly banned players and reversed those bans within hours of the attack."

Only relatively harmless player-data was accessed via the forum hack, stuff like email addresses and IP addresses. Passwords were in peril, too, but they were encrypted.

As a result of all this, The War Z forum has been overhauled and security refreshed on the game itself. Everyone's been urged to change their passwords as well, which always helps.

"We are continuing to invest significant resources to make our system even more secure," OP assured.

"We all know that the online world is never 100 per cent secure against aggressive and sophisticated hackers. This experience has been a humbling one for your War Z Team.

"We have recommitted ourselves to providing a secure and enjoyable game for our players. We will keep working to improve our game and our security in keeping with that commitment.

"We are sincerely sorry that this incident occurred and greatly appreciate the loyalty of our players."

Read this next