Epic Games Forums - Account Password Vulnerability

Just received an e-mail from Epic Games--text as follows.

"Our Epic Games web sites and forums were recently hacked. After some downtime, they're back up and running now.

The hackers may have obtained the email addresses and encrypted passwords of forum users. Plaintext passwords weren't revealed, but it's possible that those passwords could be obtained by a brute-force attack on the encrypted passwords. Therefore, we have reset all passwords. Your new password at the bottom of this message.

The Unreal Developer Network (UDN) hasn't been compromised. Thankfully, none of our web sites ask for, or store, credit card information or other financial data.

We're sorry for the inconvenience, and appreciate everyone's patience as we wrestle our servers back under control.

Tim Sweeney
Founder, Epic Games Inc"

Please be aware of the situation

In the past month or so, I've had similar emails from Battlenet regarding my Starcraft II account attempted hack, Sony over the SOE hack, Codemasters regarding a recent major hack, and one other that escapes me at the moment.

I also just saw on the news this morning that Citibank and its subsidiaries were hacked last month as well.

I am very careful about what information I give out and to whom. But in this day and age when personal information is bought and sold every day, it is very tough to completely insulate yourself from these attacks.

That's why I recommend Lifelock.........................only kidding.

But seriously, everyone needs to be vigilant about changing passwords regularly and keeping the amount of personal info floating around to a minimum. Have a good anti-virus/spyware/malware program and use it religiously.

In the wake of all of these recent hacks, hopefully companies step up their security measures.