E-Sports Entertainment Association ( ESEA ) , one of the largest competitive video gaming communities on the planet , was hacked last December . As a result , a database containing 1.5 million player profiles was compromised . On Sunday , ESEA posted a message to Twitter , reminding players of the warning issued on December 30 , 2016 , three days after they were informed of the hack . Sunday ’ s message said the leak of player information Attack.Databreach was expected , but they ’ ve not confirmed if the leaked records Attack.Databreach came from their systems . Late Saturday evening , breach notification service LeakedSource announced the addition of 1,503,707 ESEA records to their database . When asked for additional information by Salted Hash , a LeakedSource spokesperson shared the database schema , as well as sample records pulled at random from the database . Learn about top security certifications : Who they 're for , what they cost , and which you need . However , in all , there are more than 90 fields associated with a given player record in the ESEA database . While the passwords are safe , the other data points in the leaked records could be used to construct a number of socially-based attacks , including Phishing Attack.Phishing . Players on Reddit have confirmed their information was discovered in the leaked data . A similar confirmation was made Twitch ’ s Jimmy Whisenhunt on Twitter . The LeakedSource spokesperson said that the ESEA hack was part of a ransom scheme Attack.Ransom , as the hacker responsible demanded Attack.Ransom $ 50,000 in payment Attack.Ransom . In exchange for meeting their demands , the hacker would keep silent about the ESEA hack and help the organization address the security flaw that made it possible . In their previous notification , ESEA said they learned about the incident Attack.Databreach on December 27 , but make no mention of any related extortion attempts Attack.Ransom . The organization reset passwords , multi-factor authentication tokens , and security questions as part of their recovery efforts . We ’ ve reached out to confirm the extortion attempt Attack.Ransom claims made by the hacker , as well as the total count for players affected by the data breach Attack.Databreach . In an emailed statement , a spokesperson for ESL Gaming ( parent company to Turtle Entertainment ) confirmed that the hacker did in fact attempt to extort money Attack.Ransom , but the sum demanded Attack.Ransom was `` substantially higher '' than the $ 50,000 previously mentioned . The company refused to give into the extortion demands Attack.Ransom , and went public with details before the hacker could publish anything . The statement also confirms the affected user count of 1.5 million , and stressed the point that ESEA passwords were hashed with bcrypt . When it comes to the profile fields , where more than 90 data points are listed , ESL Gaming says those are optional data points for profile settings . `` We take the security and integrity of customer details very seriously and we are doing everything in our power to investigate this incident , establish precisely what has been taken , and make changes to our systems to mitigate any further breaches . The authorities ( FBI ) were also informed and we will do everything possible to facilitate the investigation of this attack , '' the message from ESL Gaming concluded . `` Based on the proof provided to us by the threat actor of possession Attack.Databreach of the stolen data , we were able to identify the scope of the data that was accessed Attack.Databreach . While the primary concern and focus was on personal data , some of ESEA ’ s internal infrastructure including configuration settings of game server hardware specifications , as well as game server IPs was also accessible Attack.Databreach . Due to the ongoing investigation , we prioritized customer user data first , '' the statement explains . In the days that followed that initial contact , ESEA worked to secure their systems , and the hacker kept making demands . On January 7 , ESEA learned the hacker also exfiltrated Attack.Databreach intellectual property from the compromised servers

Researchers from the University of Negvu have developed a way in which hackers can extract Attack.Databreach data from a victim ’ s computer using the LED lights displayed on their router . They can do so using a malware named xLED , as reported by JPost . The Cyber Security Research Center at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negvu which is located in Israel have come up with a way to hack into a user ’ s computer and steal Attack.Databreach vital data in the form of LED lights that are displayed on a router . Essentially , the operation would require a specially crafted malware named xLED which will need to be installed on a router in order to hack a victim . That is , the router needs to have a security flaw so as to allow the hacker to install the malware in the first place . It can also be possible if a flawed firmware has been installed in the router , thus making it easier for the attacker to break through the device . Once the malware is installed , the data can be exfiltrated Attack.Databreach in the binary form represented by the blinking of lights . Hence , when the light is off , it will represent a zero while when it is on , it will represent a one . A video recording device can be used to capture the blinking pattern and utilized to steal Attack.Databreach vital information that is being transmitted through the router . The device can be anything from a recording drone to a CCTV camera . As long as the camera captures the blinking lights , the data being transmitted can be easily stolen Attack.Databreach . The researchers indicated that since the rate of exfiltration Attack.Databreach of data depends upon the number of LEDs being present on a router , it goes without saying that the more number of LEDs on a router , the more amount of data can be exfiltrated Attack.Databreach at any one time . Furthermore , the researchers tested various video-recording setups to see which is the most efficient and found out that the method involving Optical Sensors was the best . This is because it received data at a higher rate and was able to sample the LED lights more quickly than any other methods . Primarily , a data exfiltration Attack.Databreach rate of 1000 bit/sec per LED was achieved using Optical Sensors . Although the researchers indicated that the method is the most effective one to steal Attack.Databreach a large amount of data , they , however , stated that since the method involves installing malware on a router , a number of other techniques can be used to extract Attack.Databreach data anyway . This is because once the malware is already on the router , there are other ways in which attackers can directly intercept Attack.Databreach the data being transmitted without the need of any video recording devices .

Researchers from the University of Negvu have developed a way in which hackers can extract Attack.Databreach data from a victim ’ s computer using the LED lights displayed on their router . They can do so using a malware named xLED , as reported by JPost . The Cyber Security Research Center at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negvu which is located in Israel have come up with a way to hack into a user ’ s computer and steal Attack.Databreach vital data in the form of LED lights that are displayed on a router . Essentially , the operation would require a specially crafted malware named xLED which will need to be installed on a router in order to hack a victim . That is , the router needs to have a security flaw so as to allow the hacker to install the malware in the first place . It can also be possible if a flawed firmware has been installed in the router , thus making it easier for the attacker to break through the device . Once the malware is installed , the data can be exfiltrated Attack.Databreach in the binary form represented by the blinking of lights . Hence , when the light is off , it will represent a zero while when it is on , it will represent a one . A video recording device can be used to capture the blinking pattern and utilized to steal Attack.Databreach vital information that is being transmitted through the router . The device can be anything from a recording drone to a CCTV camera . As long as the camera captures the blinking lights , the data being transmitted can be easily stolen Attack.Databreach . The researchers indicated that since the rate of exfiltration Attack.Databreach of data depends upon the number of LEDs being present on a router , it goes without saying that the more number of LEDs on a router , the more amount of data can be exfiltrated Attack.Databreach at any one time . Furthermore , the researchers tested various video-recording setups to see which is the most efficient and found out that the method involving Optical Sensors was the best . This is because it received data at a higher rate and was able to sample the LED lights more quickly than any other methods . Primarily , a data exfiltration Attack.Databreach rate of 1000 bit/sec per LED was achieved using Optical Sensors . Although the researchers indicated that the method is the most effective one to steal Attack.Databreach a large amount of data , they , however , stated that since the method involves installing malware on a router , a number of other techniques can be used to extract Attack.Databreach data anyway . This is because once the malware is already on the router , there are other ways in which attackers can directly intercept Attack.Databreach the data being transmitted without the need of any video recording devices .

The average company had four ransomware attacks Attack.Ransom last year , paid Attack.Ransom an average ransom Attack.Ransom of $ 2,500 per incident , and spent 42 hours dealing with the attack Attack.Ransom . `` We 're nowhere near the end of the ransomware threat , '' said Norman Guadagno , chief evangelist at Carbonite , which provides continuous automated cloud backup services . Of those who did not pay up , 42 percent said that having a full and accurate backup was the reason . And only 13 percent said their preparedness to prevent ransomware was `` high . '' `` People say , ' I know I should back up , have anti-virus , use strong passwords ' -- but they do n't do it , '' said Guadagno . Only 46 percent of respondents said that prevention of ransomware attacks was a high priority for their company . One reason could be that they do n't think the hackers will bother with them . According to the survey , 55 percent of companies said they thought it was either likely or certain that the ransomware also exfiltrated Attack.Databreach data from the infected device . Businesses should not only have anti-virus in place to keep ransomware from getting in , but also train their employees to spot potential attacks . According to the survey , only 29 percent of respondents said they were confident that their employees could detect risky links or sites . It just goes to show that you ca n't even trust cybercriminals these days .