Sega, a franchise known for its Sonic the Hedgehog character, is now the latest company to be hacked. While an investigation is under way, LulzSec was quick to deny any involvement.
With revelations on just how lax security is in some institutions, it almost seems like hacking has become quite a sport for some in the last few weeks. If you’re wondering just how many institutions were hacked, CNET has a compiled chart on, not just who got hacked, but also by who. While an interesting number of organizations were simply a part of Sony, Sony isn’t the only people being hacked these days.
The BBC is noting that Sega, namely the Sega Pass database, has become the latest hacking target. While a number of hacking groups are more than willing to claim responsibility, the identity of this hack is unclear at this point. LulzSec not only denied any involvement, but threatened retaliation against the hackers should they find out who did that because they were fans of Dreamcast. According to Sega, the server that was hacked contained e-mails and dates of birth, but other confidential details were handled on a separate server not affected by the hack – though an investigation is ongoing at this stage.
It is, indeed, good news that the company at least put sensitive information on a completely different server because it does allow for the creation of an additional barrier of security. So far, it sounds like it did its job. As a precaution, Sega has reset everyone’s passwords in the mean time which is also a really good idea in my mind.
What will come out of all this is really difficult to say at this point. What is interesting is seeing how some of these companies weather the publicity storm. In this case, so far, so good. Sega is trying to show that they did put forth a fair amount of effort to protect user data – especially financially related information. Additionally, it was very transparent and has already done something to further protect its users once a problem arose. All of this does reflect positively on the company in my view. It’s just a question of how it handles this from here on will be an interesting thing to watch.
Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at [email protected].
Drew Wilson is perhaps one of the more well-known file-sharing and technology news writers around. A journalist in the field since 2005, his work has had semi-regular appearances on social news websites and even occasional appearances on major news outlets as well. Drew founded freezenet.ca and still contributes to ZeroPaid. Twitter | Google Plus
