Earlier today, we reported that Blizzard’s online service Battle.net had been hacked. Along with other gaming news websites, we covered the news as if it were new. This isn’t the case. Battle.net has not been recently hacked, and the last time it happened was in 2012.
How did we get it wrong?
The reason we, along with other websites reported it as news was because Blizzard updated their security notice relating to the hack today, which made it appear as if it were something new and recent.
Blizzard’s CM Lore stated on Twitter has since cleared up the issue, stating that the security notice is from four years ago and that the service itself is fine and its users are not in any danger. The community manager also noted that they are adding (and have since done so) a date on the actual article to prevent any future misunderstandings.
Some of you accused us of clickbaiting the article by reporting on what appears to be old news. And this appeared to be the case if you clicked on the link and saw that it was dated to 2012. When the piece went up, it did not have the date, so we had no way of properly verifying when it happened.
Either way, we take full responsibility for our mistake and regret spreading misinformation.
