Mojang says it has not been hacked

Minecraft

More than 1800 Minecraft user names and passwords were published online earlier this week, according to German publication Hesse, which in reality is almost entirely non-noteworthy as security breaches go; this is, after all, a game that recently broke the one million concurrent user mark. Even so, Mojang wants everyone to know that this is not a tip-of-the-iceberg situation—It hasn't actually been hacked—and also to remind its many players to be careful about how they handle their passwords.

Mojang's Owen Hill explained in a recent blog post that the accounts were compromised not by hackers, but as the result of phishing scams by unnamed "bad people." All compromised passwords have been reset, and Mojang has sent out emails to everyone affected—and if you didn't receive such an email, then there's nothing to worry about.

"No-one has gained access to the Mojang mainframe," Hill wrote. "Even if they did, we store your passwords in a super encrypted format. Honestly, you don’t need to panic."

Hill also urged players to never provide their login information to non-Mojang sites, and to use different passwords on different sites to minimize the potential damage of actual security breaches. And if, after all that, you're still a little nervous about the whole thing and want to change your password anyway—"You sound like a sensible one," Hill wrote—you may do so here.

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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