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EA discloses massive data breach affecting thousands of competitive FIFA players

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Earlier today, EA officially opened up registrations for the FIFA 20 Global Series, with many individuals registering to participate in the upcoming competition. As per usual with registering for anything, personal information was required to sign up. Unfortunately, while filling out a registration form, several players saw personal information, including usernames and dates of birth that were not theirs.

Of the many FIFA competitors affected by the breach are Kurt Fenech and George Hughs, both of whom took to social media to share their stories of how they were asked to confirm personal details that were not their own.

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EA was quick to make several public announcements on both its official website as well on the official EA Sports FIFA Twitter account to provide transparency and warnings to potential registrants. “At approximately 1 p.m. U.K. Time, we announced the registration portal page for the EA Sports FIFA 20 Global Series. Shortly after, we learned that some players trying to register were seeing the information of other players,” the company stated.’

My friend got a big pull in the Data Breach pack, Hashtag's own Algerian Arrow, @YaniOurabah.

We'll send you a birthday card.

What a mess. pic.twitter.com/IYMT1ieq4g

— George Hughes (@GeorgeHughes) October 3, 2019

According to EA, the data breach compromised the personal data of approximately 1,600 players who had previously registered for the 2020 FIFA Global Series. “We’ve determined that approximately 1,600 players were potentially affected by this issue, and we are taking steps to contact those competitors with more details and protect their EA accounts.”

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Thankfully, the issue has been addressed and the registration page was temporarily taken down with the company assuring players that this will not happen again. As for those who have been affected by the situation, EA is working vigorously to help protect their accounts.”Player privacy and security are of the utmost importance to us, and we deeply apologize that our players encountered this issue today.”

As far as registrations go, EA intends to re-open registration “in the coming days,” with the company promising to make a public announcement on Twitter.

The FIFA Global Series (also known as the FIFA eWorld Cup) is an esports tournament held by FIFA with EA’s subsidiary EA Sports serving as a presenting partner.

Taylor Lyles
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Based out of Baltimore, Maryland, Taylor is a contributing writer for Digital Trends covering the latest news in the computer…
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