EA Games has leaked the personal data of 1600 gamers who registered to take part in a competition via the company’s website. 

Contenders signing up for the FIFA 20 Global Series competition were asked to enter personal information into what should have been a blank online form to verify their EA account details. But instead of being empty, the form’s fields displayed the personal information of gamers who had already signed up for the soccer video game challenge.

Personal information compromised in the breach included email addresses, account ID numbers, usernames, and dates of birth. 

Rather ironically, the breach occurred just hours after EA Games announced that users switching on two-factor authentication would get free access to an Origin Access Basic subscription for four weeks as part of the UK’s National Cyber Security Month.

Gamers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations regarding the breach, with one gamer who was confronted with the personal data of a fellow competitor joking that he would send the player a birthday card.

Another gamer, whose personal information was leaked during the breach and who is on Twitter as @Kurt0411Fifa, tweeted: “Before I get to the absolute farce of that competitive bullsh*t, when you click the link register for verification you get other people’s personal information!!!!!! WTFF, this is a new low even for this joke of a company.”

It didn’t take EA Games long to become aware of their balls-up, and the registration page was taken down yesterday, just 30 minutes after it was first put up. 

In a statement regarding the breach released on Twitter yesterday, EA Games said: “We were able to root cause the issue and implement a fix to be clear that information is protected. We’re confident that players will not see the same issues going forward.”

The games publishing company also said it was taking steps to contact the 1600 gamers affected by the breach with more details and to protect their accounts. 

When contacted for comment by Infosecurity Magazine, EA Games said: “We have issued a couple statements to our community on this topic but aren’t in a position to discuss further at this point. However, I will keep you updated if that should change or we make any further statements.”

Registration for the competition remains closed but is expected to re-open in the next few days.