Sega Hacked: 1.3 Million User Data Compromised, LulzSec offers help

The Japanese video game firm Sega, which was the latest victim of a network breach, confirmed on Sunday that in a recent cyber attack on its systems, hackers were able to steal the personal data of 1.3 million Sega customers.

The attack reportedly happened last Friday and targeted the company's Sega Pass database. The attack gave hackers Sega Pass member's email addresses and dates of birth.

According to a company statement, SEGA Pass was illegally accessed from outside and personal information of all 1,290,755 customers of the service... were brought outside of the system.

However, payment information was not compromised as Sega uses external payment providers. Sega customers have been advised to change passwords and be alert if they received emails requesting such information.

The hack is the latest large scale hacking occurrence in the last several months. Sony reportedly lost around $170 million when its PlayStation Network was hacked. Citibank was also hacking victim recently, losing customer credit card information.

The hacker group Lulz Security (or LulzSec), which has carried on relentless attacks on Sony, PBS, Fox.com, the US Senate, the CIA, and a slew of gaming sites including EVE Online, Minecraft and League of Legends, has denied involvement in the Sega case.

Interestingly, the group expressed its intention to help Sega to find the attackers saying on their Twitter feed: @Sega - contact us. We want to help you destroy the hackers that attacked you. We love the Dreamcast; these people are going down.

“We are deeply sorry for causing trouble to our customers. We want to work on strengthening security, Yoko Nagasawa, a Sega spokeswoman told Reuters.

The Pass network went offline on Thursday, the day when Sega learned of the breach and it is not known when it will go online. The company said it is investigating the breach and the network was going through some improvements.