The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is on its death bed. The sentiment has been carried for a few years now, but what once was the backbone of the largest entertainment industry in the world, the video game convention seems to be taking its last few breaths. Many in the industry speculated the rise of phones as gaming platform would ultimately destroy the show, as they are harder to demo on a convention floor than traditional console games. This wouldn’t be the case, as the video game industry has never been bigger yet its biggest player is not only being sidelined, but banned from the sport all together.
In 2019, the ESA (Electronic Software Association) which hosts E3, announced that due to an incredibly foolish vulnerability, the personal details of attendees of the show had been leaked, in full, on a large scale. The extent of the leak was essentially unprecedented. The ESA had asked for the mailing address, phone numbers, full names, and emails of professionals attending the show in order streamline making appointments, as E3 is primarily a show for people in the industry. This backfired tremendously. The first thing worth noting is that it is the responsibility of not just software developers but businesses as a whole to collect only necessary data. The mailing addresses and phone numbers of attendees is a huge red flag, as there is no reason to give more than an email at a show full of people working in the technology industry. Secondly, the ESA foolishly gave access to the data “simply by clicking on a button on the ESA’s website”. Countless measures would have had to have been overlooked or outright ignored for developers to leave this kind of sensitive information open in the manner that it was.
The video games media has been at war with the general consumers, with countless instances of harassment and abuse thrown at games journalist by angry fans who disagree with review scores and such given games by the media. This leak opened thousands of people in the games media to attack, and became a huge talking point in the industry. This year, 2020, the ESA put out a blog post sating they are updating the “media registration process”. Unfortunately, the ill-will and irreparable damage of the leak seems to be something the ESA can’t overcome. Sony, one of the biggest players at E3, has dropped out of the show entirely, as have multiple prominent people in the games media industry. Rightfully so, there is an anger towards how the ESA handled not only their data, but the situation as it unfolded. While all computer systems are liable to failure, leaving sensitive data which lead to life-threatening situations to the general public, open on such a level that it could essentially be described as intentional is such an offense that the is no action other than expulsion from the industry that is truly fitting of the ESA.
Source Article: https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/30/21115499/e3-2020-journalist-information-leak-youtube-twitch-security-doxx-vulnerability
Social Structures & Algorithms 