News

EA Origin hit with account hijacks, emails notify of 'user account changes'
Posted: 14.11.2012 14:12 by Simon Priest Comments: 9
Trouble brews for EA's Origin service as users report their accounts have been hijacked, leaving them powerless and locked out. More troubling is that EA Support seem 'unaware' of the issue.

Emails were sent to the victims telling them account changes, like username or password, have been successful. This has been going on for weeks it seems. No comment from EA yet.

This is troubling indeed for EA and their Origin store as it has just begun to gain traction, what with Valve's behemoth Steam platform looming over them casting a long shadow.

NeoGAF has started piecing multiple stories together of users having their EA Origin accounts hijacked. It seems this spate of account hacks could be linked with recent changes to the Origin systems where usernames can now be easily altered. Emails sent out don't ask for confirmation of changes either.

Origin has over 30 million registered accounts, and like Steam they have digital titles attached. This could lead EA to implementing the same type of measures Valve have in place for Steam, like tying accounts to specific IDs attributed to a PC's make up of hardware to make it difficult for hijacks to occur.
Source: CVG

Browse Polls   

POLL:

Has your EA Origin account been tampered with? 12 votes

Yes, my details were altered

VOTE

No, nothing has been fiddled

VOTE

Comments

By noobst3R (SI Core) on Nov 14, 2012
noobst3R
My account appears to be safe, although I changed the password again just in case.

The only reason this Origin crap is on my pc is because I needed it for BF3 and Crysis 2, and oh yeah, the free BF1942. Although I have a retail disc and code on my desk. :p

The sooner I can uninstall this crap, the better.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Nov 14, 2012
FoolWolf
I switched logins a lot of times last time some troubles brewed and I played a lot of BF3 - but since I don't even have it installed on my main gaming computer anymore - no fuss detected - yet...
By lichlord (SI Core) on Nov 14, 2012
lichlord
didn't got hacked either tho nothing much to gain from it other then ME3 lol

alough this shouldn't be much of an issue to solve last time i got an email of a unwished change i asap contacted customer support of that game en in less then 10 mins they undid the change + locked out the foreign IP

linking accounts to pcs are good aslong they also remain with the steam setup of sending a mail with the code otherwise idiots don't know that people tend to get new pcs or format them...
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Nov 14, 2012
herodotus
Don't seem to have any problems (fingers crossed). I wouldn't go comparing Origin with Steam though, as the former does not need to be running when playing EA games unlike Steam. Besides, Steam being an internet/browser-based application is prone to all sorts of malware that the internet is open to. If you get an adware virus on your IE, FF or GC then you'll get it on Steam.
Haven't had that issue with Origin's application....so far.

@lichlord
Do you think you would have received that same fast support from Steam? I doubt you'd even get anything beyond the standard list of PC fixes they always send, after around 24 hours.
By lichlord (SI Core) on Nov 14, 2012
lichlord
true true lol more people to serve as for the virus problems well.... they are what they are nothing much to be done with them except a anti-virus
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Nov 14, 2012
SirRoderick
I have no games on Origin :P
By lichlord (SI Core) on Nov 15, 2012
lichlord
here we go again them spambots are gonna cause a Ddos one day...
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Nov 15, 2012
SirRoderick
I wish I had a banhammer...just so I could smite those bastard.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Nov 16, 2012
FoolWolf
Time for Captcha at the make new login screen. That would hopefully take care of some...