Fallout 76: Bethesda Softworks Tech Error Results in Leaking Customers’ Personal Information
This holiday season Bethesda Softworks, the company behind newly released Fallout 76 has been plagued with problems following the release of the game. The latest involves a massive glitch on their website that has comprised the personal information of their customers.
A user by the name of Jessiepie on Reddit broke the story. In the user’s first ever Reddit post they claim they are able to see every single one of the support tickets being sent into Bethesda. Most of the tickets involve users requesting a new bag who had purchased the $200 Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition. Instead of the canvas bag promised for this edition, Bethesda gave users cheap nylon bags instead. Those tickets had customers’ receipt information. And along with the receipts it included customers’ email and home addresses as well as their credit cards they used to purchase the Power Armor edition.
Jessiepie goes on to state they even have access to update and even close the support tickets of which they are allegedly 8 pages specifically on “canvas bag requests, tickets, and ‘fix or refund me’ demands.”
Thankfully the user wasn’t a nefarious actor, because if she were this glitch could have had the risk of essentially putting thousands of customers banking information at risk. Identity Theft anyone?
Many gaming channels on YouTube were quick to report on this data breach. Hype Break ran a great report on the origin and results of this glitch and noted that Bethesda is running up a record for massive screw-ups so far as we near the end of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuqGGCKUUZg
Another YouTube channel, YongYea, also addressed this blunder and provided some good analysis on Bethesda and their rough week. I highly recommend both if you aren’t subbed to them yet.
As mentioned in both videos above, the initial response by Bestesda was less than charming. Their community manager basically said they “resolved this issue.” And that was it. One can imagine this short and impersonal statement on the breach of personal information didn’t go too well with the community.
It didn’t take long for Bethesda Support’s official Twitter to release a real statement on the breach. And while they were at it they also added in a bit of an apology into the mix.
Check out the Tweet below:
— Bethesda Support (@BethesdaSupport) December 6, 2018
Bethesda Support’s statement confirms Jessiepie’s account of the situation. It reads:
“We experienced an error with our customer support website that allowed some customers to view support tickets submitted by a limited number of other customers during a brief exposure window. Upon discovery, we immediately took down the website to fix the error.
We are still investigating this incident and will provide additional updates as we learn more. During the incident, it appears that the user name, name, contact information, and proof of purchase information provided by a limited number of customers on their support ticket requests may have been viewable by other customers accessing the customer support website for a limited time, but no full credit card numbers or passwords were disclosed. We plan to notify customers who may have been impacted.
Bethesda takes the privacy of our customers seriously, and we sincerely apologize for this situation.”
Needless to say. Players and fans weren’t too happy with the situation, how it was handled, and just the overall experience with the company since the release of Fallout 76. As you could guess they began roasting Bethesda.
— Stale__Chips™ (@Stale__Chips) December 6, 2018
— Tea The Khajiit ? (@MorrowindRP) December 6, 2018
— robin (@Ghsgzy) December 6, 2018
One user even offered to work for Bethesda to prevent data breaches like this from happening again.
Need to hire a cyber security intern? My qualifications are: studying cyber security at a nationally accredited university, and I’ve purchased Skyrim 3 separate times
— ? thot ? (@SYN___ACK) December 6, 2018
What do you think of all of this? Does the overall dissatisfaction of Fallout 76 worry you as we await the release of Elder Scrolls Six? Also, will this make you think twice before purchasing from Bethesda because you might be worried about your personal information being leaked?
Let me know in the comments below!
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