Electronic Arts investigated into an Electronic Arts-oriented issue and has come up empty in their investigation. It's almost like the media being accused of corruption with ample evidence surfacing and the media looking at their own and saying “We investigated ourselves and found ourselves innocent.” The results don't match the consumer complaints.
Recently it was reported that Origin users were suffering from fraudulent purchases on their accounts and that users were warned to change their security information if they noticed any unauthorized purchases through their account.
According to PC Gamer, Electronic Arts investigated the claims and turned up nothing on their end.
A representative issued a statement to PC Gamer, stating...
"We found no indication at this point of a breach of our Origin account database," … "Privacy and security of user account information are of the utmost importance to us. We encourage our players to use Origin user ID and passwords that are unique to their account, and to report any activity they feel may be unauthorized to EA customer support at help.ea.com."
This statement from EA puts the onus and veracity of the claims back on the consumers. The question then becomes: did some people just make this up to get attention or troll EA?
According to the PC Gamer article they point to the CNET article where a group actually recently claimed responsibility for breaching the security of more than 1.7 million user accounts across various services and sites. Is it possible that the group managed to get their hands on Origin account data and make unauthorized purchases? Well, following on the Sony hacking and the constant DDoS trolling, it's not unlikely.
This also comes off the heels of another story that only surfaced this year due to a certain consumer revolt, where a whistle-blower made it known that a journalist at a gaming website refused to report on more than 40,000 people being hacked and having their account data accessed by hackers back in 2013. Electronic Arts never came forward to admit to the hack and the journalist who didn't want to ruin their relationship with EA opted not to report on it. If it wasn't for the whistle-blower no one would have been the wiser. How can that kind of corruption be okay?
Now this isn't to say that Origin has been breached, but that there has been a string of hack attacks and a previous (and very recent incident, I might add) that makes it a little difficult to instantly believe that a group of Origin users just decided to troll EA and claim that they've had unauthorized security issues with their accounts. Let's not forget that EA also has a history of screw-ups, so pardon me if I side with the consumers on this one until more data comes to explain the situation.
I think most consumers would like to know that companies are actively seeking ways to protect and safeguard their personal data. Remember, the consumer is paying this company for a service and risking their financial information by having it put into the hands of a digitally operated outlet. The least a company can do is go over and beyond to ensure that that safety is a keen priority, especially with identity theft on the rise recently, as noted by CNN and a report CBS News.
Account safety should be a digital distributor's number one priority. No matter what EA says, be sure to change your password and security data in Origin as soon as possible, just as an extra safety precaution.
