Apr. 23, 2008 04:00 [PDT] From: PlayOnline

Regarding Online Attacks against FINAL FANTASY XI

Recently, we became aware of an individual who attempted to compromise the integrity of the FINAL FANTASY XI service. The individual's efforts exploited the low-security passwords chosen by a small percentage of our customers. We would like to assure our users that our PlayOnline team quickly responded with countermeasures against the attacks from this individual. Additionally, our legal team worked together with U.S. government authorities to identify and locate the individual. As a result of our investigation, we have now completed an out of court confidential civil settlement which has serious financial consequences for this person. This is in line with our zero-tolerance policy against any attempts to compromise or hack FINAL FANTASY XI and the PlayOnline system. We will vigorously investigate and prosecute any such attempts. In addition, we have recently implemented new policies and procedures concerning the restoration of PlayOnline accounts and FINAL FANTASY XI character data for players whose accounts have been compromised by unknown third parties. Please refer to the news announcement regarding the new policy for details. These compromised accounts bear no relation to the attack discussed above. Again, we would like to thank you for using our PlayOnline services. We will continue to take the appropriate measures against any sort of attacks to insure the quality of our services. Please refer to the following link for the details on the compromised account restoration policy. - FINAL FANTASY XI official website http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/rule/uacs01.html