EA Origin accounts hacked

If you haven’t changed your EA Origin password recently, now is probably a good time to do so – according to reports from around the internet, EA’s online platform has been compromised, and user accounts hijacked by Russian hackers.

If that wasn’t bad enough, some users are also complaining they’re unable to resolve the issue with EA’s support, because the hackers have apparently altered relevant user information required to authenticate the real account holders with support staff.

“I was shocked when advisor said that my date of birth is wrong. This just can’t be right, because my date of birth is my date of birth and me is me, how could my date of birth be different from what I know?” complained one user over on EA’s forum.

“There must be error in your database, or it was hacked or I simply made a mistake entering date of birth during registration, but letting the hacker just feel free to use/resell my account with games for which I paid money when I still can provide you tons of information is spitting in my face.”

It’s easy to assume that users are at fault in situations like this – I remember the Steam “hacking” that was a persistent problem two or three years ago among the local Team Fortress 2 community, who couldn’t understand how their accounts were hijacked after clicking through to a promotional page for loads of free games on a random website that required a Steam login.

BUT HOW?!

This does not, however, appear to be the case now – even one of Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry writers has been a victim of whatever is going on here.

EA is “escalating” the matter, but in the meantime, make sure your Origin account is still, you know, yours. And maybe make sure you’re still you too. Can’t be too careful these days, people.