Press Releases
Official Response to Hacker Attack on Frogster
Comprehensive protection measures introduced and criminal charge filed
Berlin, 18.01.2011:
An anonymous hacker published two posts on the player forum of Runes of Magic, one early on the 13th of January, and the other during the course of the 14th of January 2011, in which he threatens to publish customer data and internal company information. To reinforce his claims for changes to forum policy and some of the technical aspects of the game’s operation, he publicly posted the login details of around 2,000 players. To protect the affected players, the posts in question were immediately removed and secured as evidence by Frogster. This attack constitutes a serious criminal offence and Frogster immediately informed the German State Office of Criminal Investigation.
The data released consisted of logins registered in 2007. Frogster immediately blocked the compromised accounts on a temporary basis (account management, forum, and game access) and has personally informed the affected players about how they can reinstate their accounts and the reason for the suspension. As a precaution, Frogster calls for all players to change their game-, forum-, and payment system passwords.
Once the hack had been discovered, Frogster immediately assembled a task force and is currently using everything at its disposal to investigate this situation. Right after the publication of the attack, Frogster systematically inspected all of its systems for weak spots and backdoors and implemented new firewalls, new user privileges and passwords, as well as introducing further security measures.
Frogster takes protecting its players from these types of risks and threats very seriously and uses all means to contain and prevent them. At the same time, the publisher is pushing on with its continual process of expanding and optimising its technical infrastructure.
Regarding the claims of the attacker, Frogster emphasises that its team is always open to constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement. However, the company considers blackmail attempts, which put the privacy and security of players in danger to be wholly unacceptable and will not concede to them. Frogster’s approach to forum policy is very much in line with the industry and follows the forum rules which are publicly available to all users: https://forum.runesofmagic.com/announcement.php?f=64&a=82. Frogster does only intervene in cases of severe breaches of these regulations. Certain technical aspects of the game operations are subject to legal requirements, and there are other aspects over which the Berlin-based games publisher has no direct control.
Players unaffected by the attack can continue to log into and play Frogster’s online games as normal. On Friday, Frogster provided its player community with the following statement: https://forum.runesofmagic.com/showpost.php?p=2838322&postcount=1.
Frogster’s community management and customer support teams are available to answer any questions their players may have. A forum thread has also been set up to act as the central point of information for general security queries which can be found here: https://forum.runesofmagic.com/showthread.php?p=2850025#poststop.
In the interests of data privacy, Frogster asks representatives of the media strictly not to publish any of the player data released by the hacker, or publish any pictures which make this content visible, nor to embed the hacker’s videos into articles, nor provide links to these videos.
Bounty Bay Online
Pirates, Merchants & Explorers
With ‘Bounty Bay Online’ players enter the historic Age of Discoveries when famous circumnavigators were roaming the seas. Since 2007, they start an online career as a merchant, sailor, fisherman, pirate, explorer or in one of several other professions in a charming sailor setting. Alone or with a guild of players they follow gripping quests, start a flourishing overseas trade and discover monumental sights. Following exciting player vs. player battles on land and sea, powerful guilds can take control of cities and entire colonies and thus control their destinies.
More information on www.bountybayonline.com.
Runes of Magic
a world full of wizardry and adventure
‘Runes of Magic’ has been redefining the standard for free-to-play MMORPGs since 2009 with its massive amount of features. The online role-playing game is based on an exciting, multi-layered story, driven by thousands of quests set in the atmospheric fantasy world of Taborea. ‘Runes of Magic’ features a unique multiple class system enabling players to combine one of eight primary classes with a second and third class. Thanks to a comprehensive crafting system, individual player homes, arenas and battlefields, guild castles and siege wars, challenging dungeons and many other features, ‘Runes of Magic’ offers plenty of online adventures for all kinds of players.
More information can be found on www.runesofmagic.com.
TERA
online game world to set new standards in the genre
An impressive and highly-detailed virtual world with triple-A quality claim awaits thousands of players with ‘TERA’. Entirely developed in Unreal Engine 3, ‘TERA’ transcends current representatives of the genre with breathtaking 3D graphical environments, thrilling animations and spectacular effects. With seven races and eight character classes, ‘TERA’ offers an abundance of possibilities for character creation and development. The dynamic real-time combat system of ‘TERA’ gets players engaged in battles considerably more actively than all conventional MMORPGs available on the market. ‘TERA’ is set to be released in May 2012 based on a subscription model.
More information can be found on www.tera-europe.com.
Eligium
The Chosen One
In ‘Eligium – The Chosen One’, MMO fans will come face-to-face with hordes of menacing demons. It is up to the chosen one to reunite the four races in order to repel the hellish creatures. Through its various features including an atmospheric game world, numerous gloomy dungeons with demanding boss battles, raid instances, an inspired PvP and ranking system, open world events, an unique item upgrade system, and mounts which players can train and watch grow, ‘Eligium’ provides players with a feature packed gaming experience unlike no other.
More information can be found on www.eligium.com.
RaiderZ
An Action-Packed Fantasy Game World
With ‘RaiderZ’, Frogster will release an action-oriented online game that requires sophisticated tactical combat skills. Unlike traditional point-and-click MMO games, players will have direct control over their characters in combat due to the game’s innovative non-targeting combat system. ‘RaiderZ’ sets itself apart with its detailed and atmospheric game environments, an epic background story and impressive boss opponents. Frogster is currently planning to unveil the title as a free download starting in the second half of 2012.
More information can be found on www.raiderz-europe.com.
Seth Iorio
CEO | Frogster Interactive Pictures AG | Managing Director and COO | Frogster Online Gaming GmbH
Seth Iorio assumed the role of Managing Director and COO at Frogster Online Gaming GmbH at the beginning of October 2010, taking over responsibility for the technical and customer-focused areas of customer care, community management, payment and fraud management, localization, programming, and IT. In January 2011, he was appointed to the executive board of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG and has held the position of CEO since 1 January 2012. Seth Iorio is also a member of the executive board as COO at Frogster’s parent company Gameforge AG.
Prior to his start at Frogster, Seth Iorio, who holds a diploma in business management, was VP Business Development and authorized representative responsible for Customer Communications and Marketing at Gameforge. In 2000 he founded Rabbit Software AG which he led as CTO. Following this, he was active as an IT consultant for companies such as Victoria Versicherung AG and as project leader for United Internet.
Tobias Haar
Member of the Executive Board | Frogster Interactive Pictures AG
The supervisory board appointed Tobias Haar to the executive board of Frogster with effect of January 1, 2012. In this position, he is responsible in particular for the activities of the foreign subsidiaries, licence contracting, and the legal and administrative business areas. Tobias has led the joint Legal Department of Frogster and Gameforge since September 2011 as General Counsel. In addition to his positions at Gameforge and Frogster, he is Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of G.A.M.E., the German Computer Game Industry Association in Berlin. The legal graduate, lawyer and legal informatics specialist specialises in national and international economic and IT law as well as mergers and acquisitions and recently coordinated the legal and administrative aspects of the takeover of Frogster by Gameforge. He came to the Gameforge group in 2008, after many years of professional experience as a lawyer in a leading international law firm as well as in the private sector.
Dominic Scheve
Vice President Finance | Frogster Interactive Pictures AG | Managing Director and CFO | Frogster Online Gaming GmbH
Dominic Scheve came to Frogster in 2006 holding a university diploma in business administration. After completing his postgraduate degree as Master of Business Administration (MBA) successfully, he works as Vice President Finance at Frogster Interactive Pictures AG since spring of 2009. As of October 2010 Dominic Scheve has taken responsibility as Managing Director and CFO at Frogster Online Gaming leading the fields of finance and controlling.
