Tens of thousands of gamers' personal details 'compromised'

Tens of thousands of people have had records of their personal details broken into by hackers who raided computer systems operated by a games developer.

Codemaster, the British firm targeted by the hackers, said passwords, names, addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, Xbox gamer tags and the dates of birth of customers had all been compromised. But payment details remained untouched.

The electronic break-in took place on 3 June and is the latest of several against games companies that include Sony.

Customers were advised to change all passwords they have with Codemasters accounts any other sites where the same login details are used. They were warned to be extra vigilant for potential scams whether by phone, email or post.

The Codemasters.com website was taken down "as soon as the intrusion was detected" and will remain offline for the foreseeable future.

In a statement sent to customers, the firm insisted payment details were "not at risk" and it pointed out that the compromised passwords were "fully and securely encrypted".

It added: "Unfortunately, Codemasters is the latest victim in ongoing targeted attacks against numerous game companies. We assure you that we are doing everything within our legal means to track down the perpetrators and take action."

It was uncertain which of the compromised records had been stolen. The company said: "Whilst we do not have confirmation that any of this data was actually downloaded onto an external device, we have to assume that, as access was gained, all of these details were compromised."