Following Capcom a few weeks ago, the Europe branch of Koei Tecmo has now been targeted by a cyber attack. Thankfully, it looks like damage isn't nearly as severe as what happened with Capcom.
In a press release on December 29, Koei Tecmo reported there is a risk that the login information of around 65,000 accounts of Koei Tecmo Europe's forum have been leaked. The leak may have happened starting December 25.
What was confirmed to be leaked so far:
- Account names
- Account passwords (in an encrypted state)
- Mail addresses
At the moment, the results of the investigation shows no credit card information or similar critical customer or employee info has been stolen. Only forums users login information has been compromised so far.
For the investigation and to avoid further damage, the official sites of Koei Tecmo America and Koei Tecmo Europe have been shut down and are currently inaccessible. The Koei Tecmo Europe internal network has been cut off from the rest of Koei Tecmo's internal network as well. Both sites simply redirect to a blank page stating "Due to the possibility of an external cyberattack on this website, it is temporarily closed as we investigate the issue.".
While the investigation is still ongoing, a post claiming the attack was also discovered on a hacking related forum. They also claim to be selling information regarding FTP authentication and Koei Tecmo's official twitter accounts through bitcoin.
We do have some European readers on DualShockers, and half of the DualShockers staff is from Europe (I'm from France myself). As such, if you do own a Koei Tecmo Europe account, be sure to change your password.
Koei Tecmo Europe is currently working on the localization of Atelier Ryza 2. The first numbered sequel in the Atelier series, with the same protagonist, launched on December 3, 2020 in Japan. Atelier Ryza 2 launches on January 26, 2021 in America, and on January 29 in Europe. On PS4, Switch, and PC via Steam.
Through his Famitsu end of the year message, Koei Tecmo, Team Ninja director Fumihiko Yasuda also mentioned the Nioh series is reaching a turning point in 2021.
Koei Tecmo will also launch the Surge Concerto DX remasters in Japan on January 28, 2021, on Steam, Switch, and PS4. Sadly these weren't announced in the west yet.
DualShockers hopes Koei Tecmo will be able to recover soon and that no critical information has been leaked.