Reports of +500,000 Call of Duty accounts hacked started to come over the surface by several online COD players. Gaming company “Activision” declined the claims.
It’s not clear who it was the first person who flagged the breach, but the rainstorm came directly from Twitter and later picked-up, and compiled by the news outlet dexerto.com.
But who is right and saying the truth after all? Call of Duty Accounts got hacked… Or not?
Claims of Call of Duty Accounts Hacked
Most claims estated that accounts were taken over, and the credentials were changed right away. Basically, legitimate users couldn’t recover their own Activision account.
This results in a bigger problem than you think. First of all, Activision accounts to link to all Call of Duty titles (Warzone and Modern Warfare, to mention a few), and they can also link to Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox gaming system networks… Which contain payment details.
As in the words of Javvad Malik (security advocate): “Many games require accounts to be created to play online. Not much thought is given to its security, so this results as an appealing target for anyone looking to compromise large numbers of accounts, quickly.”
Dean Ferrando of Tripwire added: “such breach accounts represent a goldmine for malicious actors who intend to plan further attacks, be it phishing or otherwise.”
You now understand what big of a problem this is to over 500,000 users. Hackers know there’s great value in these accounts, as well as of other games such as Fortnite.
Of course, those who raised their voices are affected players themselves.
@Okami, the founder of Respawnable, was one of the first (if not the first one) to tweet.
“Yeah, it’s legit guys. Change your Activision account passwords and add 2FA immediately. Apparently, over 500k accounts have been breached already and it’s still ongoing.”
And then, others followed.
@ProtoWarehouse said, “Regarding the Activision account breach, I just seen solid proof, change your password.”
@TheGamingRevo3 continued: “Activision accounts are apparently being leaked so change your password, although that might not even help because they’re apparently generating 1,000 accounts every 10 minutes.”
You can guess all the tweets caused major panic on the network of players.
And because of that, Activision jumped right into to deny all claims as false.
Activision Response to Alleged COD Accounts Hack
A spokesperson by the name tag of @ActivisionSupport issued all the problem with this statement:
“Reports suggesting otherwise are not accurate. We investigate all privacy concerns. As always we recommend that players take precautions to protect their accounts at all times. Please visit our player support page for further information, including a helpful set of tips and step-by-step instructions.”
You can find the mentioned instructions here.
They suggest taking the following measures to keep your Activision Account secure:
- Use a strong password
- Link your platform accounts
- Do not use passwords you’ve used for other accounts
- Do not buy, sell, or share accounts
- Do not share account details or credentials
- Do not sign in on shared devices
- Avoid scam websites and suspicious offers
- … And steps instructions of “what to do if someone accessed your account.”
The measures are explained more in-depth inside, and the tips advised are comprehensive.
But then there’s an Achilles Heel: There’s no two-factor authentication (2FA) option to be enabled on Activision accounts.
After all, this is a must-needed measure that the company needs to implement as soon as possible. At least, when all the hacking campaign finishes.
Yes, it’s still on-going. So far, the clues point out this to be caused by password stuffing.
If so, the best you can do is to use a strong password for every platform (DON’T reuse them) and install a password manager. More suggestions can be found either on Activision’s site or ours.