Private contact information for over 2,000 journalists and popular YouTube creators was leaked on a popular gaming conference's website
- Private contact information for over 2,000 game industry journalists, analysts, and YouTube creators had been accessible online in plain text on the website of the popular gaming conference, E3.
- The information included names, home addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of press members who attended the annual conference this June.
- The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which runs the E3 conference, said it had shut down the section of its website which contained the downloadable link after learning of the vulnerability.
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Private contact information for over 2,000 game industry journalists, analysts, and YouTube creators had been accessible online in plain text on the website of the popular gaming conference, E3.
Notice of the leaked data was first made public on Friday by YouTube creator Sophia Narwitz.
The information - which had mistakenly been accessible on the E3 website via a downloadable link - included names, home addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of 2,025 press members who attended the annual conference this June.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which runs the E3 conference, said it had shut down the section of its website which contained the downloadable link after learning of the vulnerability.
"Once notified, we immediately took steps to protect that data and shut down the site, which is no longer available," an ESA spokesperson told Business Insider on Saturday. "We regret this occurrence and have put measures in place to ensure it will not occur again."
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Still, according to The Atlantic's Taylor Lorenz, some popular YouTubers said they have been receiving spam calls and text messages from blocked numbers.
Two others told Kotaku that they have received prank phone calls since notice of the list was made public.
In its official statement, the ESA said that the media list was supposed to be "password-protected" and that "for more than 20 years there has never been an issue."