Insomniac Games is back in the news after a very successful launch of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on the PS5. And no, this news isn’t related to the lack of awards won at The Game Awards. Insomniac Games appears to be the victim of a ransomware attack, with some pretty significant information being leaked as a result. While there’s been no official confirmation on the legitimacy of the leaks, Sony has stated they are investigating the claims.
Last week, the Rhysida ransomware gang claimed they had successfully breached Insomniac and shared some information online to prove it. The leaks included screenshots for its upcoming Wolverine game, internal emails, employee documents, and scans of passports and government documents for current and former employees including the voice of Spider-Man Yuri Lowenthal! Rhysida stated they were giving Insomniac a week to respond, demanding $2 million in Bitcoin for the data. It’s also listed for sale on their auction site to increase the pressure on Insomniac.
Sony is looking into the claims and is likely trying to understand if the data is authentic and how the bad actors managed to actually get it. While Rhysida may specialize in deploying ransomware, there are a lot of different ways and places that information like this could potentially be stolen from. Sony has stated that it does not believe that it or any other parts of the company have been impacted.
Bad actors seem to have developed a taste for stealing and leaking information from video game publishers. Companies like Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Capcom, CD Projekt Red and Riot Games have each dealt with cybersecurity incidents over the last three years. It was only a year ago that Rockstar was hacked and developmental footage of GTA VI was leaked online. Those hackers were arrested and convicted. It seems that secrets and personal information are valuable no matter what industry they come from. Video game studios and publishers will have to increase their cybersecurity capabilities to protect their teams, as is true for companies in all industries moving forward.
Image from: Marvel/PlayStation
