Square Enix server hacked, member services pulled offline

Video game publisher Square Enix announced on Tuesday that someone “may have gained unauthorized access to a particular Square Enix server.” In response to the hack, the company has taken their member services website offline in both Japan and the United States while they investigate the incident.

The first part of the statement from Square Enix reads,

“We have reason to believe that unknown parties may have gained unauthorized access to a particular Square Enix server related to the free SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS service offered in North America and Japan. In response, Square Enix, Inc. has temporarily suspended operation of the SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS service starting at 10PM (PST) on December 12, 2011.”

If you happened to have a Square Enix members account the company reassures you that you don’t need to worry about your credit card information. The company statement continues,

“We are assessing the full extent of this potential breach to determine what data, if any, was compromised and will provide more details as soon as possible. While some personal information may have been accessed, we can confirm that there is no possibility of any credit card information leak from this incident, since the server in question stores no credit card information. We estimate that the suspension will continue for a few days until we complete our investigation and counter-measures. We will update you as we learn more.”

While Square investigates, expect a few days of downtime for the member services site both in Japan and the U.S., while they close up whatever hole was used to access the server and figure out exactly what information was obtained.

It seems that Square Enix acted quickly to disable services and then notify users of the problem. It does make you wonder why there was a two day gap between when the incident occurred, and services were taken offline, and when this statement was released. Did it really take them two days to craft three paragraphs and verify that the server doesn’t actually store credit card information?

Are any of you users of the Square Enix members services site?