In a December 13 report, the American video game developer Insomniac Games was hit by a catastrophic cyber attack resulting in the loss of confidential data. The gaming company lamented that the severe attack exposed the firm to the risk of losing vital data. Hours after the incident, the Insomniac team regretted that the hackers accessed company data, including the scanned documents where US passport duplicates are stored and other personal data.
Insomniac Games Suffers Ransonware Attack
The report demonstrated that the W9 tax reports were left in the hands of cybercriminals. The gaming company revealed that the personal data stolen included the employees’ social security numbers, IDs and other confidential information.
Besides the personal data, the report illustrated that the hackers gained access to Insomniac’s latest development, the Wolverine game, which will be launched in 2025. After probing the matter the gaming company lamented that the hackers stole screenshots of Wolverine games.
The Insomniac hacking incident became the first cyber attack launched, resulting in loss of gaming information. The incident threatened the entire gaming sector, attracting the attention of critical developers and innovators to investigate the matter.
In a separate report, the team behind Spider-Man 2 Sony confirmed that its core team had started actively investigating the Insomniac hacking incident. In an interview with Eurogamer, the Sony Group stated that it was aware of the Insomniac cyber security breach, and the gaming company has commenced intense investigations.
Rhysida Threatens to Auction Insomniac Game Data
Even though the gaming studio had not examined the severity of the hacking incident to other gaming companies, Sony vowed to support Insomniac in the ongoing investigations. After a thorough investigation to identify the hackers and recover the lost data, the Insomniac team received a message from a group purporting to be the mastermind behind the attack.
Unknown to many, the Rhysida ransomware gang launched the Insomniac attack, which has been a threat to the UK after it leaked patient data to the public. In most cases, the Rhysida hackers have been targeting to steal confidential data from government agencies and fast-paced businesses.
After the hacking incident, Rhysida issued multiple demands to the victim before leaking sensitive data to the competitors and the public. Regarding the Insomniac hacking incident, the Rhysida group threatened to auction the stolen data to the interested parties.
According to the report, the hackers claimed to have valuable data and will be ready to sell. The hackers plan to action the data at 50 Bitcoin, which translates to around $2 million.
Hackers Target Gaming Companies
In the meantime, all the interested companies or individuals are encouraged to place their bids. The Rhysida outlined the procedure that will be used to purchase the data. Firstly, the buyer has been advised to create a wallet that will be used to transfer the funds to an account owed by the hackers.
The report revealed that the stolen data will only be sold to one buyer. This implies that the data will not be available for resell; hence, interested buyers are encouraged to place the bid within seven working days.
The Insomniac incident demonstrated that the hackers have shifted their focus to the gaming industry. A recent report indicated that hackers’ interest in gaming is obtaining large amounts of sensitive information.
Last year, hackers gained unauthorized access to Rockstar Games, heisting confidential information concerning its latest development on Grand Theft Auto version 6. In August, a court in London convicted two teenagers for leaking Rockstar’s personal information to the public.
The court report illustrated that the two suspects were members of Lapsus$, a criminal gang that launched a cyber attack on Nvidia, EE Telecommunications and Grant Theft Auto 6. Also, the two criminals were accused of violating the Britain Computer Misuse Act, engaging in a series of fraud and blackmailing.
Shortly after the Rockstar hacking incident, the tech giant Sony suffered an exploit resulting in losing confidential data. The Sony incident exposed over 62 million ethical concerns after the hackers shared the stolen data with the public.
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