We know cybercriminals will try to cause a lot of damage for financial gain. They target consumers with malware and ransomware. However, over the past few weeks, criminals have been going after tv production houses and even video game studios. CD Projekt Red, the company behind the “The Witcher 3” video game, suffered a major data breach. The assailant now demands a ransom to not leak stolen files.
CD Projekt Red Is In A Dire Situation
It is never good to hear a popular video game studio is held ransom by an unknown cybercriminal. Especially if that company successfully created one of the most amazing video games PC and console players have seen in recent years. The company has suffered from a data breach not too long ago. It now appears the hacker responsible for doing so is holding the company hostage and threatens to look the stolen files.
To be more specific, it is unclear what informed has been stolen exactly. The official communication by CD Projekt Red mentions how “internal files” have been obtained, without going into specifics. It does appear some of the files revolve around the game studio’s upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 game. A lot of gaming enthusiasts are looking forward to this new game, although very little is known about it to this very date. The person responsible for stealing this information demands an undisclosed sum of money to be paid.
For once, it is unclear is the money should be paid in Bitcoin or through any other method. A lot of cybercriminals often demand a Bitcoin payment due to its alleged anonymity. In the case of the CD Projekt Red data breach, it looks as if a different payment method is required. However, the company has no intention to pay this demand whatsoever. Instead, they alerted the proper authorities to launch an official investigation and retrieve the files without allowing money to change hands.
It is quite refreshing to see companies affected by a data breach be incredibly transparent about what is going on. In most cases, victims of such a hack would try to pretend like nothing has happened whatsoever. This gives a wrong signal to both the community and the people responsible for stealing information alike. Events like these always need to be reported to the authorities, rather than making a payment.
For the time being, it is unclear what will happen. It is evident the game studio will not make the payment, yet the hacker may decide to release the files regardless. Similar incidents have taken place over the past few months, with multiple popular TV shows seeing their episodes leaked on the Internet due to a data breach. None of those companies made the payment either, which makes the criminals lose their leverage relatively quickly.
It is evident cybercriminals are resorting to some rather unusual tactics these days. Stealing proprietary content and demanding a ransom may sound like a good idea, but it will not result in a paycheck anytime soon. Companies are well aware of how making the payment will only invite more hacks and extortion attempts. It will be interesting to see if the hacker distributes the information related to Cyberpunk 2077, though.
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