Zynga Data Breach: What Do Draw Something Players Need to Know?

When playing a game like Zynga’s Draw Something on your smartphone, chances are you’re not thinking about whether your personal information stored in the app is at risk. Turns out, maybe you should be.

Last fall, some 173 million people who play Zynga games on Android and iOS phones were subject to a data breach by a hacker claiming credit for the heist.

Zynga Data Breach for Draw Something Overview

Smartphone and social media gaming have experienced a meteoric rise in popularity in the last decade and one of the most successful companies riding that trend is Zynga. With its roster of fan-favorite online and mobile games, including FarmVille, Words With Friends, Zynga Poker and Mafia Wars, the company boasts more than a billion players. Those players drove Zynga’s revenues to $1.3 billion in 2019, according to Forbes.

In 2012, Zynga purchased the Draw Something app and the company that developed it. Draw Something is a game in which players draw clues on their phones and send them to other players to guess.

The Zynga data breach was first reported in September and affected players of Draw Something and Words With Friends.

The information gathered in the cyberattack included email addresses, usernames, login IDs,  Facebook IDs, phone numbers, and hashed and salted passwords, according to NortonLifeLock.

In a statement on its website about the data breach, Zynga said that no financial information had been accessed by the hacker. As a precaution, the company said, it had “taken steps to protect certain players’ accounts from invalid logins, including but not limited to where we believe that passwords may have been accessed.”

Ultimately, an investigation found that the attacker accessed nearly 173 million unique accounts.

Zynga also said it had begun sending “individual notices to players where we believe that notice is required.”

How Did the Zynga Breach Occur?

The breach has been traced to a known hacker by the name of Gnosticplayers, who told The Hacker News in September that he was able to gain access to Zynga’s popular social crossword game Words With Friends. From there, he said, he accessed a database of more than 218 million users.

Zynga Data Breach: What to Do

NortonLifeLock recommends that players who think their accounts may have been accessed during the Zynga data breach to change their passwords, and if they use the same password for other accounts, change those too. Zynga also suggests that players not use duplicate passwords and instead create unique strong passwords for every account.

Forbes cautions players of Draw Something and Words With Friends to be on alert for spam texts and phone calls as well as phishing emails, which may include links that could infect your device with malicious software.

Have Lawsuits Been Filed?

In March, a class action lawsuit against was filed in U.S. District Court in California over the Zynga data breach, according to Threatpost.com. The complaint accuses the company of “negligence and a failure to safeguard” it’s users’ personal information.

Filed on behalf of a minor and his parent, the lawsuit claims Zynga had “substandard password security.” Because the stolen information was sold by the hacker on the Dark Web, players whose accounts were compromised could be faced with future harm, according to the lawsuit.

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Zynga did not directly notify users about the data breach – which could be a violation of California law – and instead posted a notification on its website.

The Zynga filing includes a request to have the case certified as a class action and asks for damages of more than $5 million.

Should You File a Zynga Data Breach Lawsuit?

Finding out your personal information has been accessed and sold without your permission can be troubling, and the breach of your data is cause for concern. Players who created accounts through Draw Something or Words With Friends before the September 2019 Zynga data breach may want to consider joining a class action lawsuit against Zynga.

What Damages Might Be Available?

Zynga players whose accounts were hacked could seek damages in a lawsuit against the gaming company for things like future costs for credit monitoring services, among others.

Join a Free ‘Words with Friends’ & ‘Draw Something’ Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you are a user of “Words with Friends” or “Draw Something” and created your account with Zynga for one of these games prior to September 2019, your information may have been compromised in this data breach, and you may qualify to join this “Words with Friends” & “Draw Something” data breach class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.