UPDATED 22:04 EDT / JULY 14 2015

NEWS

Epic’s forums hacked, taken offline during investigation

Epic Games, Inc., developer of the Unreal Engine and the Unreal series of first person shooters, is currently sending out e-mails warning users that its forums have been subject to a hack.

The e-mail, in part, warns that the hackers may have gotten away with a lot of personal information given to Epic Games by users including “username, email address, password, and the date of birth.” The e-mail further explains that once the forums return to normal status passwords will be reset.

As usual, anyone who has used the same password and e-mail on Epic’s forums should change that password any other place they have used it (and stop doing that.)

Here is the central part of the e-mail from Epic Games:

We have just discovered that the Epic Games forums located at https://forums.epicgames.com were compromised by a hacker. We are sorry to report that the incident may have resulted in unauthorized access to your username, email address, password, and the date of birth you provided at registration.

We have taken https://forums.epicgames.com offline. When the site reopens, your password will be reset. If you use the same password on this site which you use on other sites, we recommend immediately changing your password on those sites as well.

The affected forum site covers UDK, Infinity Blade, Gears of War, Bulletstorm, and prior Unreal Tournament games. However, the separate forum sites covering Unreal Engine 4, Fortnite, and the new Unreal Tournament were unaffected.

The company added that because it is a public forum they do not collect or maintain any financial information. So users will not have to worry about credit card information or anything being picked up by the hackers.

However, with names, dates of birth, and other personal information, Epic warns users to be wary of potential phising e-mails being tailored to catch them off guard based on the information hackers may have stolen—and will likely sell to a 3rd party.

Epic added that an investigation is ongoing and that the company is “working with a computer security firm to identify the nature of the compromise.”

We will update if Epic releases further information based on that investigation as this story unfolds.

Image credit: Epic Games, Inc. screenshot of “forums offline.”

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