Epic Games has allegedly become the victim of a new ransomware hack.
As reported by Cyber Daily, a new hacker group named Mogilevich claims they have 189 GB of data from Epic Games. Perhaps demonstrating their lack of experience, Mogilevich does not seem to have contacted Epic directly to negotiate their ransom.
Instead, Mogilevich is simply offering the data for sale, stating on their site:
“If you are an employee of the company or someone who would like to buy the data, click on me.”
They claim the data includes emails, passwords, names, payment information, and source code. As you may have noted, Mogilevich did not give a dollar figure for the ransom, and they also have not offered proof that the hack is real. All we have is a deadline; March 4.
Based on what Mogilevich claims they have stolen, they can particularly harm Epic by putting their customers’ data out there for the public. Epic runs their own Epic Game Store, a PC storefront competing with Steam and GOG. Of course, to verify their own users, they have acquired sensitive information, including passwords and payment information.
But, Epic is a bigger business than that, and there are several other ways hackers could attack them by sharing data. For example, Epic of course also develops and licenses their Unreal Engine to other game developers. That private information may not refer to Epic’s customers on the game store, but their other set of customers, game developers who use Unreal Engine.
And then, on top of that, Epic Games is a game developer and publisher. For the past few years, their sole focus in that capacity has been Fortnite, the first and biggest live service battle royale out there. Fortnite have their own accounts system for players, so gamers can be compromised in that way. The hackers may also have Fortnite’s source code.
Now, here’s the thing. Epic Games, like Insomniac Games with Rhysida, is unlikely to cooperate or settle with Mogilevich. If one of these companies ever crosses that line, it will set a bad precedent and possibly encourage future ransomware attacks on the industry.
That’s the reason why, in spite of the clear fact that Insomniac’s inaction did lead to their personal information leaking out in public, other game studios are unlikely to cooperate with hacker groups.
So, there is a chance we will get some seriously confidential data from Epic Games’ inner workings. As was the case with Insomniac Games and Rhysida, the leak will bring bad consequences for the studio involved. But like Pandora’s Box, once these secrets are let out they won’t be able to hide them again.