Microsoft, on Wednesday, refuted reports which claimed a security breach at developer Mojang had compromised personal details of more than 18,000 Minecraft players.
Redmond said that no Mojang.net services have been compromised and that the email addresses and passwords were obtained through some other means such as either through email phishing attacks or malware installed on players’ computers. Microsoft also noted that it has already reset passwords for the affected addresses.
“We can confirm that no Mojang.net service was compromised and that normal industry procedures for dealing with situations like this were put in place to reset passwords for the small number of affected accounts,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.
“When we discover lists of gamertags, usernames and passwords posted online, we take immediate action to protect our customers by reviewing for valid credentials and resetting account access when necessary.”
Developer Mojang has already advised players to be on a safer side by choosing strong passwords for their accounts on its service.
“A good password is a phrase that is easy for you to remember, but very hard for other people to guess. This may sound simple, but unfortunately there are plenty of devious people out there,” the firm said.
“Always use unique passwords for your accounts. Reusing a password is very risky, simply because if someone figures out your password for one service, they will also potentially gain access to every other service that you use that same password for.”
Mojang was acquired by Microsoft in September last year in a deal said to be worth $2.5 billion (£1.5 billion). The game is currently available to play on PCs, Android, iOS and Windows Phone, as well as games consoles including the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
