The ESA’s Recent Data Leak Isn’t The First Time They Let It Happen
Aidan O'Brien
It would seem that the ESA’s recently leak that made public the private details of thousands of game journalists and content creators isn’t the first time they showed they have no idea how to handle private information. News broke last week that the names, addresses, emails, and mobile numbers of thousands of journalists and content creators could be easily accessed online through the E3 organizer’s website.
Well, it would seem that this is not the first time this information has been so poorly handled; it is merely the first time anyone has noticed. Hopefully. According to an article from GamesIndustry.biz, archives of the site show that the same information was publicly accessible in the same way for previous years as well.
Databases that they have seen are reported to contain details for more than 2800 journalists who attended in one year, and 3300 journalists who attended in another year. While the data is not publicly accessible on the website now, it was discovered when looking at archived versions of the site.
Upon the initial discovery of the leak, the ESA issued a fairly typical non-apology, citing a “website vulnerability.” In this case, that website vulnerability was that nobody at the ESA seemed to know how to handle private information correctly. This discovery implies that nobody at the ESA has known how to do this for some time.
It remains to be seen what kind of backlash the ESA will receive over this, and what the legal recourse is for the people who had their data leaked. For now, if you plan on heading to E3 next year, I would suggest you only do so if you operate from a business address, as many freelancers will be giving their home address to companies like this.
About the author
