Company:RockYou

From HandWiki

RockYou was a company that developed widgets for Myspace and implemented applications for various social networks and Facebook. After 2014, it had engaged primarily in the purchases of rights to classic video games; it incorporated in-game ads and re-distributed the games.[1]

History

In May 2007, RockYou was one of the companies invited to participate in F8, the event at which Facebook announced an open platform allowing third parties to develop and operate their own software applications on the Facebook website. Applications made for Facebook included Super Wall,[2] "Hug Me", Likeness, Vampires, Slideshows, Birthdays, MyGifts, and Emote, among others.[3]

In October 2010, the company completed major layoffs.[4] In November 2010, the company's founder and CEO, Lance Tokuda, stepped down from his position as CEO[5] and was later replaced by Lisa Marino in April 2011.[6]

In 2010, RockYou announced the acquisitions of two game development studios, TirNua[7] and Playdemic,[8] as well as development agreements for two new games from John Romero's social game studio Loot Drop.[9] Playdemic's first game, Gourmet Ranch, was nominated in February 2011 for a Mochi Award for Best Social Game. RockYou's investors include SoftBank,[10] Sequoia Capital,[11] Lightspeed Venture Partners,[12] Partech International,[12] and DCM.[12]

In 2011, the company agreed to undergo two independent security audits to settle a proposed class action in California over the 2009 data breach that exposed millions of passwords and email addresses.[13]

In 2012, the company settled Federal Trade Commission charges. The settlement barred future deceptive claims by the company regarding privacy and data security, required it to implement and maintain a data security program, barred future violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule, and required it to pay a $250,000 civil penalty to settle the COPPA charges.[14]

On June 13, 2012, RockYou acquired Bingo developer Ryzing[15] and relocated its headquarters to San Francisco, California.[16] In August 2012, RockYou launched The Walking Dead Social Game based on the AMC series of the same name.[17] In April 2014, RockYou purchased three Playdom social games from Disney: Gardens of Time, Words of Wonder, and City Girl, and announced it was licensing Army Attack, Crazy Penguin Wars, Millionaire City, and Zombie Lane from Digital Chocolate.[18]



On February 13, 2019, RockYou filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.[19]

Data breach

In December 2009, the company experienced a data breach resulting in the exposure of over 32 million user accounts. The company used an unencrypted database to store user account data, including plaintext passwords (as opposed to password hashes) for its service, as well as passwords to connected accounts at partner sites (including Facebook, Myspace, and webmail services). RockYou would also e-mail the password unencrypted to the user during account recovery. They also did not allow using special characters in the passwords. The hacker used a 10-year-old SQL vulnerability to gain access to the database. The company took days to notify users after the incident, and initially incorrectly reported that the breach only affected older applications when it actually affected all RockYou users.[20]

The full list of passwords exposed as a result of the breach were made available online. Due to its easy attainability and comprehensive length, it was commonly used in dictionary attacks.[21]

Social applications and games

  • Army Attack[22]
  • Bakery Blitz
  • Bingo Blingo
  • Birthday Cards
  • Brightwood Adventures
  • City Girl Life
  • Crazy Penguin Wars
  • Dragons of Atlantis
  • Edgeworld
  • Fashion Designer
  • Gardens of Time
  • Gold Rush
  • Glory of Rome
  • Hero World
  • Horoscopes
  • Hug Me
  • Jackpot Bingo
  • Kahzuu Slots
  • Kingdoms of Camelot
  • Kitchen Scramble
  • Lucky Slots
  • Mall World
  • Millionaire City
  • Movie Blitz
  • My Casino
  • New World
  • Pieces of Flair
  • Pioneer Adventures
  • PurePlay Poker
  • Rapid Poker
  • RockYou Live
  • RockYou Poker
  • Skull Island
  • Solitare 3 Arena
  • Solitare Arena
  • Speed Racing
  • Super Pets
  • The Godfather: Five Families
  • The Walking Dead Social Game
  • Toy Land
  • Volcano Island
  • War of Nations
  • Words of Wonder
  • Zoo World
  • Zoo World 2
  • Zoo World Classic
  • Zombie Lane

References

  1. ↑ Grubb, Jeff (31 July 2014). "Mobile-gaming ad network RockYou secures $10M in financing". GamesBeat. https://gamesbeat.com/mobile-gaming-ad-network-rockyou-doubles-its-revenues-and-secures-10m-in-financing/. 
  2. ↑ Stone, Brad (October 4, 2007). "In Facebook, Investing In a Theory". New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/04facebook.html. 
  3. ↑ Lee, Ellen (September 3, 2007). "Widgets add flair to dress up Web sites". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/03/BUG14RTHD31.DTL. 
  4. ↑ Kincaid, Jason (15 October 2010). "RockYou Rocked By Layoffs As It Switches Focus To Social Games". TechCrunch. AOL. https://techcrunch.com/2010/10/15/rockyou-rocked-by-layoffs-as-it-switches-focus-to-social-games/. 
  5. ↑ Kincaid, Jason (24 November 2010). "RockYou CEO Lance Tokuda Steps Down". TechCrunch. AOL. https://techcrunch.com/2010/11/23/rockyou-ceo-lance-tokuda-steps-down/. 
  6. ↑ Eldon, Eric (April 8, 2011). "Interview: New RockYou CEO Lisa Marino Talks Social Gaming, Advertising and Mobile". insidesocialgames.com. http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2011/04/08/interview-new-rockyou-ceo-lisa-marino-talks-social-gaming-advertising-and-mobile/. 
  7. ↑ "TirNua acquisition". GamesIndustry.biz. 3 December 2010. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/tirnua-acquisition-company--with-over-100-years-of-game-development-experience--picked-up-by-zoo-world-publisher-rockyou. 
  8. ↑ Wauters, Robin (13 January 2011). "RockYou Buys UK-Based Social Gaming Startup Playdemic". TechCrunch. AOL. https://techcrunch.com/2011/01/13/rockyou-playdemic/. 
  9. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (20 January 2011). "RockYou signs deal with Doom creator John Romero's social game studio Loot Drop". GamesBeat. https://gamesbeat.com/rockyou-signs-deal-with-doom-creator-john-romeros-social-game-studio-loot-drop/. 
  10. ↑ RockYou (June 7, 2010). "RockYou Receives Additional $10 Million in Funding from SoftBank". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Archived from the original on 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  11. ↑ Marshall, Matt (2006-06-19). "Sequoia invests $1.5 in slideshow start-up RockYou.. & other valley news" (in en-US). https://venturebeat.com/business/sequoia-invests-15-in-slideshow-start-up-rockyou-other-valley-news/. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Weinstock, Suzanne (2013-01-04). "DCM leads $35m investment in RockYou" (in en-GB). https://www.privateequityinternational.com/dcm-leads-35m-investment-in-rockyou/. 
  13. ↑ "RockYou Agrees To Security Audits To End Breach Action - Law360" (in en). https://www.law360.com/articles/294215/rockyou-agrees-to-security-audits-to-end-breach-action. 
  14. ↑ "FTC Charges That Security Flaws in RockYou Game Site Exposed 32 Million Email Addresses and Passwords". FTC (Press release). 27 March 2012. Archived from the original on December 28, 2025.
  15. ↑ Rose, Mike (13 June 2012). "RockYou acquires Bingo developer Ryzing". gamasutra.com. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/rockyou-acquires-i-bingo-i-developer-ryzing. 
  16. ↑ Ha, Anthony (13 June 2012). "RockYou Acquires Social Games Developer Ryzing, Moves to San Francisco". TechCrunch. AOL. https://techcrunch.com/2012/06/13/rockyou-acquires-ryzing/. 
  17. ↑ Thompson, Mike (August 9, 2012). "The Walking Dead Social Game's open beta lurches onto Facebook". insidesocialgames.com. http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2012/08/09/the-walking-dead-social-games-open-beta-lurches-onto-facebook/. 
  18. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (2014-04-18). "RockYou buys three Playdom games from Disney to keep them running" (in en-US). VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/2014/04/18/rockyou-buys-three-playdom-games-from-disney-to-keep-them-running-for-players/. 
  19. ↑ "RockYou, Inc. Bankruptcy (1:19-bk-10453), New York Southern Bankruptcy Court". https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/27094541/RockYou,_Inc. 
  20. ↑ Cubrilovic, Nik (15 December 2009). "RockYou Hack: From Bad To Worse". TechCrunch. AOL. https://techcrunch.com/2009/12/14/rockyou-hack-security-myspace-facebook-passwords/. 
  21. ↑ Kumar, Vijay (2020-05-11). "Rockyou wordlist Kali Location and Uses, Complete Tutorial for beginners" (in en-US). https://www.cyberpratibha.com/blog/how-do-i-use-rockyou-wordlist-txt-in-kali-linux/. 
  22. ↑ Nutt, Christian. "RockYou's new strategy: Rescue games that other publishers don't want" (in en). https://gamasutra.com/view/news/215827/RockYous_new_strategy_Rescue_games_that_other_publishers_dont_want.php. 



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