On Monday, Bandai Namco appeared seemingly out of nowhere on the list of victims of the AlphV ransomware group. AlphV, also called BlackCat, has been a prolific threat in the cybersecurity space since November of 2021. In the wake of their appearance on the list, speculation ran wild about what could have been taken from Bandai Namco and what new leaks would materialize because of it.
One such supposed “leak” was a graphic that claimed to outline upcoming releases for Bandai Namco through the end of 2023. The list looked a lot more like a wishlist than a real timeline of releases, including things like a new Armored Core game, a sequel to Code Vein, and DLC for Elden Ring. Now those may all be things that are in development, there’s been no official word one way or the other, but Bandai Namco released a statement about the hack on Wednesday and nothing in their response gives credibility to the supposed leak.
In their statement, Bandai Namco acknowledged the breach stating that it started at several subsidiary companies in the Asia-Pacific region. It also revealed the possibility that customer information related to the Toys and Hobby Business in Asian regions, excluding Japan, was exposed on the devices they had access to. Bandai Namco isolated the devices to stop the threat from spreading and is currently investigating the true impact.
Now here’s a peak behind the curtain of the world of cybersecurity, AlphV makes its money by ransoming the data that it steals from companies. Once the data leaks on the internet, they lose all their leverage on Bandai Namco. That means the supposed leaks that are popping up are unlikely to be real as it’s pretty likely that AlphV wants to get paid for their work. This won’t be the last we hear about this breach with Bandai Namco sure to release more information in the future, at the very least to notify any customers affected by this breach.
Image from: Bandai Namco
