Team
Video game leaks are becoming increasingly common and their impact on society cannot be overlooked. Compared to data breaches involving personal data, video game leaks tend to have a bigger impact simply because most of the games that end up being leaked are popular titles, which are favorites among gamers around the world.
Recently, the trailer of the popular video game Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 6 was leaked onto the internet. The leak resulted in shares of the video game publisher, Take-Two Interactive Software, dropping 2%. Eventually, Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two published the GTA 6 trailer on YouTube. The account that posted the leak was also suspended. But the damage had already been done.
However, the leak of the GTA trailer is not nearly as bad as what is happening to Sony right now. Sony’s Insomniac Games’ internal data has made its way to the dark web following the passing of a ransom deadline. The Rhysida ransomware gang has leaked 1.67 terabytes of data, which contains more than 1.3 million files, onto the dark web.
The gang said in its leak post that “No sold data was uploaded, data hunters, enjoy,” and it appears some data was, in fact, sold to an enterprising bidder. Only 98% of the full dataset has been uploaded.
The ransomware gang had initially threatened to publish the data on December 12th, after publishing limited proof-of-hack material, including passport scans. While the ransom figure remains uncertain, the cybercriminals were selling the data for around US$2 million. Any buyer, including Sony, was welcome to bid.
The video game industry itself has witnessed increasing cybersecurity incidents. Capcom, another game developer, fell victim to a massive data leak three years ago. It was only recently that law enforcement agencies were able to apprehend the ransomware group responsible.
As video games continue to gain popularity and become more integrated into our daily lives, companies must take cybersecurity seriously and take the necessary measures to protect their data and assets.
