The PlayStation Network hasn’t been the only video game outfit to suffer a data breach in the past weeks, a breach at Eidos Montreal suffered one recently that has gone relatively unnoticed. It seems to be part of a trend where more video game networks are becoming more attractive to attackers and thus treated as potential soft targets to steal information from.

According to an article on VG24/7, Square Enix contacted them to confirm that a website for their famous Deus Ex video game had been compromised and personal information has been accessed by hackers,

“Square Enix can confirm a group of hackers gained access to parts of our Eidosmontreal.com website as well as two of our product sites. We immediately took the sites offline to assess how this had happened and what had been accessed, then took further measures to increase the security of these and all of our websites, before allowing the sites to go live again,” Square Enix said in a statement sent to VG247.

However, the company insists that while personal data such as up to 25,000 email addresses and resumes for jobs at Eidos Montreal – of which 350 were accessed – no credit card data was stolen due to the websites not holding any such data.

“Eidosmontreal.com does not hold any credit card information or code data, however there are resumes which are submitted to the website by people interested in jobs at the studio. Regrettably up to 350 of these resumes may have been accessed, and we are in the process of writing to each of the individuals who may have been affected to offer our sincere apologies for this situation,” the statement continues.

The past two weeks have been a hotbed for the PlayStation Network hacks and how safe people feel with their information stored in video game networks. First, the hacks took PSN offline, then Sony discovered they went deeper than expected. Congress has been considering the safety of citizens as related to how much information taken from outfits like this could put them at risk for identity theft (a huge discouragement to be part of the economy and the new information technology crime of our generation.) In a bow to this, Sony has offered identity theft insurance for all the users affected by the breach.

As more and more people sign onto networks for entertainment and give up personal and financial data, networks like PlayStation, Xbox Live, Square Enix, and other massively multiplayer online gaming communities will become bigger and bigger targets in the minds of criminals.

Entertainment culture, especially surrounding video gaming, has become a highly networked social experience for our community hungry culture. As a result, we see people logging into Xbox Live and PSN late at night, putting on their headset and taking part in a globe spanning network of friends to enter into virtual worlds and engage in strange debates at 4am over the sound of gunfire or the gentle breeze through their crops on Harvest Moon.

Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry with an audience to match. The video game industry is changing not only the economy but the social and cultural economy of thought and communication as well.

As massively multiplayer online games and subscription services continue to bulk up, they’ll become larger targets in the eyes of criminals. We’ve already seen a great deal of social engineering attempting to use the human gaming instinct to steal information from people on Facebook; the next-big-world of customer information will come through their entertainment.