Games company Sega becomes latest hacking victim

LONDON (AP) — Video game developer Sega said that its online database has been hacked, making it the latest in a string of games companies to be attacked.

The company sent an email to users of the Sega Pass system on Friday to warn them that email addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords had been stolen from online database.

The email stressed that no financial information was at risk and that it has launched a probe into the extent of the breach. It is not immediately clear how many users were affected.

"Please note that no personal payment information was stored by Sega as we use external payment providers, meaning your payment details were not at risk from this intrusion," the company said.

The company says it had taken its Sega Pas system offline and all users' passwords have been reset.

The security breach came after Sony Corp. and Nintendo suffered similar attacks by hackers.

In April, Sony's Playstation Network was the victim of a huge security breach that affected more than 100 million online accounts. The company suffered a second data breach earlier this month.

The hackers' group that claimed credit for the Sony attack, Lulz Security, had also said it was responsible for the recent breaches of the U.S. Senate computer system and the CIA website.

The group did not appear to be responsible for the Sega intrusion. It said on Twitter Friday that it wanted to help Sega "destroy the hackers" that attacked it.