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Hackers Break into `Second Life` Databases

On September 6 it was discovered that the databases of the popular online role-playing game "Second Life" were invaded by hackers. 650,000 player names, addresses, and passwords were accessed, which made the developer to order all players to change their log-ins.

The incident was discovered by game maker Linden Lab and revealed on Friday, September 8 in an alert on the "Second Life site". It was carried out via a zero-day exploit against unnamed software running on Linden Lab`s servers. The company assured the users that players` credit card information, which was stored in another database, was encrypted and not compromised.

The company wrote on its blog: "Detailed investigations over the last two days confirmed that some of the unencrypted customer information stored in the database was compromised, potentially including Second Life account names, real life names and contact information, along with encrypted account passwords and encrypted payment information". The company invalidated all "Second Life" passwords Friday, forcing users to create new passwords to reach the game. On Saturday, it offered up other password-reset options, Monday it posted toll-free numbers for users in the U.K. and Australia.