Koei Tecmo Shuts Down Forums Following Data Hack

The Japanese publisher Koei Tecmo announced over the Christmas holiday that some personal data from 65,000 users of its English language website was hacked, leading the company to take its US and UK websites offline for the time being.

“Within the website operated by KTE, the ‘Forum’ page and the registered user information (approximately 65,000 entries) has been determined to the data that may have been breached,” Koei Tecmo announced in a press release on December 25, first reported on by BleepingComputer. “The user data that may have been leaked through hacking is perceived to be the (optional) account names and related password (encrypted) and/or registered e-mail address.”

The publisher—which is responsible for the Dynasty Warrior series, including several Musou spin-offs and the recent Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity—wrote that the hack appeared to be isolated to its forum pages and didn’t contain any credit card information. Koei Tecmo added that it doesn’t know who launched the cyberattack yet and that it believes the likelihood of the leaks being related to a ransomware attack is low.

In addition to reporting the data breach to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the publisher has also temporarily shut down the US and UK websites. “Due to the possibility of an external cyberattack on this website, it is temporarily closed as we investigate the issue,” reads a single line of text that appears when you try to visit the Koei Tecmo America website.

Unlike the recent extensive cyberattack on Capcom in November, which affected corporate information like sales reports and development documents, this data breach appears to be isolated to player emails and passwords.

“Koei Tecmo apologies for the concern and inconvenience this may be causing to its customers and business partners,” the publisher wrote in its press release. “For individuals who have had their e-mail addresses leaked, Koei Tecmo is determined to take the appropriate measures and act in good faith hereafter.”

Koei Tecmo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Correction: the post has been updated to reflect that news of the data breach was first reported on by the data security website BleepingComputer.