The War Z publisher's preliminary investigation finds hack confined to forum database

A recent hack on The War Z forums, after which the developer took the massively multiplayer online zombie survival game offline, was confined to information available in the game's forum database, according to a recent post from publisher OP Productions.

A representative from OP wrote that the company began an investigation with the help of "outside experts" when it learned hackers had obtained access to the forums earlier this month. Based on the preliminary investigation, OP "did not find definitive evidence that our game account database was accessed."

Hackers had access to information contained in the forum database, including email addresses used to log into the forums, forum passwords and forum users' IP addresses. Because the hackers had access to forum administrators' accounts, they were also able to play The War Z with their accounts and ban players randomly.

Despite the lack of "definitive evidence" that the game's account database was accessed, the publisher advises The War Z players to change their game passwords as well as those of any email account that uses the same password. The company has also "installed several layers of hardware and software security" and continues to work with "several third party security experts."