Fernando Herrera, who heads online gaming at Sanoma Games, says police are investigating the matter. Sanoma Entertainment is not releasing details of how the attack took place due to the ongoing investigation.
“We are taking this very seriously. Data theft is a serious crime, and we are working closely with authorities to find out who did this and what the effects are,” says Herrera.
Herrera adds that the other gaming services provided by Sanoma Games were not affected by the theft. The company also says that other online services provided by Sanoma Group were not threatened.
The company has sent additional information via email to its customers. Users are urged to change passwords on other sites if they have used the same password.
The Älypää user registry does not contain credit card numbers or personal information.
Over 100,000 People Affected
The Finnish national computer emergency response team CERT-FI says people who used the same password for other online services are particularly at risk. The organisation urges those users to change their passwords immediately. They should also change their passwords on other sites if their passwords were similar.
“The fact that data from the Älypää site was stolen is not the most worrisome thing. It's that people often use the same password and user name on other sites. There have already been cases where people have tried to use the leaked information to gain access to other sites like email,” says Ari Husa of CERT-FI.
Husa also warns Älypää users to be wary of sites offering to check if their information was leaked onto the internet. He says that passwords in particular should never be fed into unknown sites.
The Älypää site is closed for the time being.