Activision responded in the negative to the string of news circulating online, entailing Call of Duty accounts were recently compromised.
DotEsports was first to report about the waves of warning dropped on social media, citing Call of Duty accounts are being hacked. The eSports media outlet highlights that the famous content creators were a few of the first to confirm the alleged breach.
Online chatter about the alleged hack
Accordingly, the string of news entails that over 500,000 Call of Duty accounts have been compromised. Furthermore, said accounts are being leaked publicly, and so gaming influencers put out the warning to their passwords.
Respawnable founder, Okami, was one of the first to confirm that the breach was “legit.”
Yeah, it's legit guys. Change your Activision account passwords and add 2FA immediately.
Apparently over 500k accounts have been breached already and it's still ongoing. @Activision @ATVIAssist https://t.co/mjKecaty1m
— Kami (@Okami13_) September 21, 2020
Prototype Warehouse also confirmed, after seeing “solid proof” of the said Call of Duty account breach. TheGamingRevolution further informed that the hackers are “apparently generating 1,000 accounts every 10 minutes.”
Activision accounts are apparently being leaked so change your password, although that might not even help because they're apparently generating 1,000 accounts every 10 minutes.
— TheGamingRevolution (@TheGamingRevo3) September 20, 2020
In the official website of Respawnable, it reported that content creator “oRemmy” described the issues as “the biggest hack in Call of Duty history.” He says its “10x worse than the notorious PS3 hack.”
Both the eSports publication and the content creators encouraged performing precautionary measures. Aside from changing the password, they suggest activating the Two-Factor Authentication.
DotEsports advised unlinking Battlenet, PSN, Xbox, or other accounts associated with the players’ CoD accounts. Moreover, removing saved payment details from their accounts were highly advised as well.
Activision’s response
On September 22, Forbes reports that a spokesperson from Activision has released an official statement to address the current issue. The statement reads:
“Activision Call of Duty accounts have not been compromised. Reports suggesting otherwise are not accurate. We investigate all privacy concerns. As always we recommend that players take precautions to protect their accounts at all times. Please visit our player support page for further information, including a helpful set of tips and step-by-step instructions.”
Despite denying the breach, Forbes notes that “gamers continue to contact me to say their accounts have, indeed, been hacked.” Prototype Warehouse says, “[n]ever expect them to publicly admit to a breach, that would hurt them severely financially.”
Should the breach be true or not, taking extra-precautionary measures to secure players’ accounts should be taken. Reports of massive account breaches have been rampant, more so now during the pandemic.
This year, the online community has seen a few of the biggest breaches in history. Twitter had its moment recently, while Nintendo experienced the same earlier this year.
Featured image courtesy of Activision