Players of "Minecraft" are now asked for massive caution and protection for their log-in information tied up in the popular world-building game. This came after German publication Heise reported that a total of 1,800 usernames and passwords were leaked online by anonymous people. Although Microsoft managed to reset all of those, the company shunned from sharing details about how the leak was executed. Good thing though is that the service was not marred.
"We can confirm that no Mojang.net service was compromised and that normal industry procedures for dealing with situations like this were put in place to reset passwords for the small number of affected accounts," a spokesperson from Microsoft stated as quoted by IB Times. "When we discover lists of gamertags, usernames and passwords posted online, we take immediate action to protect our customers by reviewing for valid credentials and resetting account access when necessary."
The affected accounts were a small portion of the game's hundred million register for its PC version. CNET believes that more could have been victimized as the people responsible likely made use of phishing attacks or malware. The leaked credentials are used by players of "Minecraft" to log into Mojang.net and Minecraft.net. These account details allow them to play the game online and download the title to their PC.
However, as The Guardian pointed out, the hacking can become detrimental to those who use these very credentials on their banking accounts, emails or social network accounts.
"There is no mention of the security breach on Minecraft's homepage, but my recommendation would be that if users have any concern that their accounts might be exposed to hackers that they should change their passwords immediately. It goes without saying that they should be particularly concerned if they are using the same password anywhere else on the web," security analyst Graham Cluley wrote in Hot for Security.
In the hopes of keeping "Minecraft" and the particulars out of harm's way, Mojang put up a page that can help players choose a strong "Minecraft" password.
