EA denies data breach after list of user account information appears online

Pastebin, a website where users can store text online for a set period of time, was updated recently with what appears to be a data dump of information regarding Electronic Arts' user accounts. The data, while incomplete, listed email addresses, passwords, dates that look like birthdays, and game listings.

An individual, who wishes to remain anonymous, was alerted of the breach after receiving a password reset notification for an old Skype account, followed by five additional password reset requests from Dropbox. It didn't end there, following the password reset requests the user was sent an email from "urhack.com" containing his EA password and a link to the now deleted Pastebin post.

Along with the leaked profiles were game listings for titles like Battlefield (2, 3, 4, Hardline), SimCity, The Sims (2, 3, various expansions), FIFA, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Theme Hospital, STAR WARS Battlefront, Dead Space, Need for Speed, Titanfall, and more.

EA denies that their user's accounts have been compromised, but is actively investigating the disturbance.

In a statement, a spokesperson notes that:

“Privacy and security is our top priority at EA. At this point, we have no indication that this list was obtained through an intrusion of our account databases. In an abundance of caution, we’re taking steps to secure any account that has an EA or Origin user ID that matches the usernames on this list. As always, we encourage all players to safeguard their account credentials and use unique usernames and passwords on all online accounts.”

There is a possibility that the data was mined from other data sources, but for the moment anyone with an Origin account should consider changing their passwords.

[CSO]