Minecraft developer Mojang revealed on Wednesday how the usernames and passwords of 1,800 accounts were recently stolen. The studio reassured gamers that it wasn't hacked and instead blamed the theft on a phishing attack. Essentially, these Minecraft gamers were tricked into providing their usernames and passwords when directed to fake Mojang/Minecraft websites.
"If you haven't received an email from us, you don't need to worry. No one has gained access to the Mojang mainframe," Mojang reported. "Even if they did, we store your passwords in a super encrypted format. Honestly, you don't need to panic."
Mojang didn't go into detail about the phishing attack, but instead requested that Minecraft players use a unique password when logging into their account. That way, if Mojang does get hacked in the future, the crooks won't have access to other online accounts used by Minecraft gamers such as email and banking.
Microsoft, which purchased Mojang for $2.5 billion back in September 2014, indicated on Wednesday that there was no sign of foul play on the server side. However, the company admitted that it quickly reset the passwords of the affected Minecraft accounts after the published list of account info surfaced.
Mojang and Microsoft provided instructions on how to create a great password right here, noting that a good password should be easy to remember but difficult for hackers. Avoid using obvious phrases like a pet's name or a birthday. Passwords should also not only include a long line of numbers and letters, but at least one capital letter.
"You need to pick a really strong password, something that not even the most powerful computer can crack within a reasonable amount of time," Mojang stated.
Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
