Capcom’s Japanese Online Game Service (COG) Hacked. Large Number of Accounts Affected

This is a bit niche but if you play Monster Hunter Frontier or any of the games Capcom offers for subscription in Japan through their COG service (Capcom Online Games), your account has been forced into a password reset. 

According to this press release, COG's Monster Hunter Frontier ID servers were slammed on January 10th with over 500,000 attempts to reset passwords to a large number of accounts. According to an investigation from Capcom's security contractor, Ahnlab, Inc, there was not a leak of information. However, due to the nature of the attacks, they are asking that all players reset their password and verify some information. 

This is a routine situation for online gaming but unfortunately, it looks like it spells doom for people playing Monster Hunter Frontier outside of Japan. In addition to the password reset, customers must also provide their name, date of birth, the postal code they registered with (that has to be in Japan), and their e-mail. 

Because Monster Hunter Frontier requires a location within Japan to play, many players almost randomly select a postal code. So, they will no longer be able to play their accounts because it is impossible for them to figure out which zip code they used to register their original account. 

Monster Hunter Frontier is currently available on the X-Box 360 and on PC in Japan only.