It seems like after the PSN outage, that several other video game outlets have fallen under attack in recent weeks. Late last week saw a hack on Dirt 3 developer Codemasters, and now this week brings an attack on notable RPG developer and publisher Bethesda Softworks.

While the nature of this hack is unknown, Bethesda claims that many of the vital information contained on their site (credit card data and personal financial information) was not accessed. What was accessed, however, were user names, passwords, and/or email addresses. The situation is very similar to the PSN attack only Bethesda doesn’t provide a million user online service.

For now, Bethesda recommends that users of their community sites and forums change their passwords to protect themselves from any potential malfeasance. Furthermore, they suggest that for those users who might use the same password and username combination as they do on Bethesda’s sites on other, more important sites go ahead and change those as well.

It seems like the gaming industry just can’t catch a break with hackers these days, as there is clearly a pattern taking place. While the scale of attacks are nowhere near the severity of what took place with the PSN and the SOE servers, it is still noteworthy that another prominent figure in the industry has come under strife.

Also, this focus on games-related hacks could stem from the fact that gamers are very wary of their personal data’s misuse after Sony handled their hack so badly. It’s absolutely a hot button issue and one that will continue to be brought to gamers’ attention whenever it happens.

After a great showing at this year’s E3, it’s a bit disheartening to hear Bethesda come under a hacker attack. We wish the team over there a speedy response and swift justice.

Do you think that post-PSN outage hackers have begun targeting game publishers and developers for notoriety? Will we ever reach a time when a game-related hack isn’t big news?

Source: Bethesda Blog