Security Breach Exposes Data of Over 200 Million ‘Words with Friends’ Players

Zynga, the developer behind popular mobile games ‘Words with Friends’ and ‘Draw Something,’ has announced in a press release that a recent security breach has exposed data of more than 200 million players, although no financial information was accessed by the hacker.

A hacker that goes by the name Gnosticplayers, has claimed responsibility for the breach that took place on Sept. 12, revealing that data from every user that played the popular crossword spelling game on Android and iOS was accessible in the breach, according to CNET.

In an interview with The Hacker News, Gnosticplayers said that hacked data included names, email addresses, account IDs, and encrypted passwords, along with any provided phone numbers and Facebook IDs.



Zynga says that it has already taken steps to protect these users’ accounts from invalid logins and has begun the process of sending individual notices to players affected.

“We plan to further notify players as the investigation proceeds. The security of our player data is extremely important to us. We are working hard to address this matter and remain committed to supporting our community.  Additional information is available on our Player Support page.”

For those who are using the same password for Zynga as some other services, we strongly recommend changing it right away. The easiest way to do it is by using a password manager like 1Password, which ensures that you’re using strong, unique passwords for all of your various services.