Pokemon Go Hacked

The phenomenal success of Pokemon Go is also attracting cyber criminals. Pokemon Go experienced severe server issues on July 16; however, the company didn’t mention an attack.

According to PCMag, the OurMine hacker group was behind the server issue. Members of OurMine said via email that they were just trying to protect the company’s servers. “We wrote we will stop the attack if any [Niantic] staff talked with us, because we will teach them how to protect their servers,” a member of OurMine told PCMag.

There is another group called PoodleCorp that is claiming a DDoS attack on Pokemon Go servers. PoodleCorp is reportedly planning another attack on August 1.

 The popularity of the game has raised concerns around privacy and security. Senator Al Franken (D) of Minnesota penned a letter to the game developers and expressed his concerns. He wrote, “I am concerned about the extent to which Niantic may be unnecessarily collecting, using, and sharing a wide range of users’ personal information without their appropriate consent.”

Popular blogger and Entrepreneur in Residence at Upload VR, Robert Scoble, also expressed his concerns on Facebook, “I haven’t seen a single person worrying about the privacy implications of Pokemon Go. Yes, we have gone over the freaky line that Shel Israel and I laid out in our book ‘Age of Context’. Five years ago this game would have caused a huge privacy panic. This thing tracks our children. Think about that!”