Gaming Peripheral Maker Fanatec Suffers Data Breach Compromising Customers’ Personal Information

• Attackers compromised Fanatec’s online store and gained unauthorized access to its customer database.
• The compromised customer database contained the personal information and account information of customers.

What is the issue?

Gaming peripherals maker Fanatec suffered a data breach incident after hackers compromised its online store and gained unauthorized access to its customer database.

What was compromised?

Attackers compromised Fanatec’s customer database that contained the personal information and account information of customers.

“In this context, personal data of our customers were disclosed to the attackers against our will. According to the information available to us so far, we must unfortunately assume that your account and the information contained therein was subject to the attack as well,” Fanatec said in an email notification, Kotaku reported.

The big picture

Fanatec disclosed that its online shop was compromised in a cyberattack on August 16, 2019. Upon learning the incident, the peripherals manufacturer reported the hack to the appropriate public prosecutor's office as well as notified the data protection authority in Ansbach (Bavaria) about the incident.

• Fanatec hired an IT security company to launch an investigation on the incident and assist the company in protecting its IT systems against similar attacks in the future.
• The organization has also reset all passwords and has requested its customers to re-assign new passwords for their online shop as well for other accounts if they’ve reused the same passwords across multiple accounts.

“Please keep the information contained in this email confidential. This reduces the potential for the hacker to be aware of our official communication, and gives affected customers a better opportunity to can take the necessary steps to inform their credit card providers,” Thomas Jackermeier, CEO at Fanatec said in an email.