
It seems another high-profile video game company has been hacked. This time it is the third-party giant Electronic Arts.
The data breach was originally reported on by VICE Motherboard, which reveals hackers have stolen "a wealth of game source code and related tools" for the Frostbite engine (known for powering games like FIFA).
The hackers say they apparently have "full capability of exploiting" EA services and have supposedly stolen 780GB of data. They're now attempting to sell it.
An EA spokesperson confirmed the company had been compromised, in a statement to Motherboard:
"We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen"
No player data has been stolen, and there is believed to be no risk to player privacy. EA has also improved its security since the incident and is now working with law enforcement and other experts as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
This breach follows a cyber attack on Capcom last November and one on CD Projekt Red in February of this year. If we hear any developments about this latest one, we'll be sure to let you know.
[source vice.com]
Comments 80
Crazy that Capcom, CD Projekt Red, and now EA have all been hacked over the last 12 months.
Whoa! Somebody doesn't like them releasing the same games every year!
Bad karma will bite those cyber criminals.
Someone's angry with the Sims 4 expansions being shallow.
Let's hope they sell it for less than EA are charging for Battlefield 😒
Odd how the companies that got hacked are those that does bs anti-consumer practices in the past. They probably may go after Konami, Sega, UbiSoft, and Activision next. At this time Bethesda should be glad they got bought by Microsoft as the big M had good security protection on them.
Normally I'd feel bad, but...eh.
780GB doesn’t sound like very much. That’s what, a couple of PS5 game installations or a single ultra quality texture pack for a AAA PC game?
@VoidofLight : There’s no way that the content in The Sims 4 would even come close to 78GB let alone 780GB (though the eye-watering asking price of about AU$1,000+ for all of the DLC would make laypeople think otherwise).
I'm no coder or programmer or whatever one needs to be to understand source code, so I wonder what exactly hackers do with source code once they have it? What value does it have?
People online are celebrating this attack cause they hate EA so much XD. Then they say the hackers are just Madden fans who are gonna make the series good again and update the rosters lol
@Joeynator3000 I know. It's weird isn't it.
@Silly_G I mean, the motive could've been the sims ripping them off.
Really though, I don't feel bad in the slightest for EA, since they've done the most to hurt the gaming industry, and I think this is just probably karma for what they've done.
Man, those Need for Speed fans didn't take the old games being removed off digital stores too lightly.....
@ATaco A source code is basically the main recipe of ingredients that details what makes a good game. Without it you won't be able to know how to make a good version of that particular game as it not only had info on what you need to code but how and in what way it should be coded or program.
It's kinda like making your own special recipe but for software instead of food. Remember even though food product list the ingredients on their Nutrition Fact, how and what they do with those ingredients were not details and that's where the recipe is needed cause without it you won't be able to make the same product in that same prestine quality. Source codes for games work the same way.
You can still try to make the same game that looks, sounds, and maybe plays a little like that particular game but without the source code you won't know how to debug where everything was or program how the game framerate would run, how the characters will interact and control or how the graphics would animate, change, or blend in with the characters or environment, etc. You get the picture.
Probably a disgruntled Knockout City player tired of being frozen on the loading screen. Admittedly, the game’s as addictive as crack.
I hear there's a fixed price to get back the first 200gb of data and the rest will be sold in loot boxes
@carlos82 I'm sure that will make EA feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when they finally pay enough to get all of it back!
Why do people do this stuff when it's not allowed?
In lockdown we heard stories of how Nintendo couldn’t adapt to having their staff working at home because they weren’t set up for them to work online. This is the flip side of the coin where if your employees can ‘work from the cloud’, then there’s a chance that can be exploited by thieves.
Bad karma will bite those cyber criminals.
@Anti-Matter It appears that karma already has bitten the criminals...
@VoidofLight : In any case, I am not the least bit sympathetic to EA. They have destroyed too many franchises, and a publisher as big as they are have some nerve incorporating gambling with real-world currency into their games.
Robin Hood lives on, it seems.
@NorseGamerTommy
"Why do people do this stuff when it's not allowed?"
Egoism, selfishness.
@NorseGamerTommy Usually for money.
I can't bring myself to be anything but ecstatic over this. If any company deserves this, its EA. I hope to god that this screws them over for a long time.
@alexybubble No, no one deserves to be hacked and have their stuff stolen. No one.
The Sims source code fingers crossed
I’m happy for that. Judge me.
@Ghost_of_Hasashi
Ah cool, thanks for the info. So basically they stole the secret crabby patty formula lol
I wonder how damning it would be if the hackers realize that the source code for FIFA has been almost unchanged for a couple years now
@Anti-Matter Are you talking about EA or the hackers?
@sanderev I used to think like that until I realized how much CEOs like Bobby Kotick and Andrew Wilson completely screw over, cheat and steal from their own employees. Firing hundreds of hard working employees while they add a nice little bonus to their already massive paychecks... unfortunately they won't be the ones to suffer for this. They never do.
Lol, what a shame
Wow, I actually couldn't give a crap, Uh Funny how there actions have effected me in this way.
EA be sleeping on the job lol
@PBandSmelly And how are the workers being punished for this? It doesn't seem like any personal data was stolen. The only people who are being punished for this are the money hoarders at the top, and I doubt that they're loosing anything either. If anyone builds the source code on their own, they probably would have just pirated the game anyway.
Let the jokes commence!
Removed - disrespecting others
EA: -_-
Hackers: Pay or we will tell everybody FIFA’s code has been the same for the past decade
Everybody else: 😒
@alexybubble I think that the "money hoarders at the top" will be just fine. Obviously, these things happen. I also highly doubt that this will screw EA over for a long period of time, sorry lol.
Please keep in mind that these hackers are not the Robin Hood Champions of Gamers. They'll most likely sell the source code. Their motive wasn't to punish EA. This was done for profit.
Lastly, the real victims are the programmers who have invested countless hours into writing the code. Also, law enforcement who now has to invest their time dealing with these thugs.
Global Cyber Attack incoming. Stock up on your non perishable food and buy a generator ladies and gents
@PBandSmelly sure, cause praying on children and people with addiction problems and scamming them out of billions of dollars are the actions of a saint.
The psychological damage EA is doing to thousands of kids will only become apparent in the coming decades. Trust me, having worked in casinos, I've seen what this kind of thing does to people's brains and it ain't good.
@PBandSmelly Wholeheartedly agree with you
*JeremyClarksonOhNo.gif
I wonder how much the hackers will charge EA for the first wave of content?
@NorseGamerTommy crossing a red light is also illegal but that never stopped people from doing it.
@ATaco Depends what the data is. It might be customer login details which you might be able to use to charge their credit cards for stuff you can sell. It might be secrets that allow you to set up an underground rival DLC store. It could be a game engine that you can populate with other assets and sell as a new game. It could be financial data that could be used to undermine or embarrass the company.
Clearly these guys just want to make a quick buck so they're just selling it.
@Exciter89 Where's the revolution?
Someone wasn't happy the the new Battlefield is multiplayer only.
@the4seer "Lastly, the real victims are the programmers who have invested countless hours into writing the code"
Why's that then? Their games will still be released and they'll still be employed.
@ATaco From a security point of view it's actually pretty serious. All software has security vulnerabilities but most of those are harmless simply because hackers don't know how to find and exploit them. Once you have the source code you can see exactly how things work and come up with much more targeted hacks.
Oh no-
Anyways.
@LocalPenguin of course. After all, unlike the evil game publishers, cyberthieves are absolutely NOT out for easy profits.
So the size of one COD War zone patch then
Looks like Tencent is in need for tools to start making their own games? 😬😂
To make it easy on EA, the hackers will sell back all the information a little at a time, spread out over many affordable payments conveniently withdrawn from EA's PayPal account, or it can be repurchased in "surprise mode": $10 million gets you a spin of the wheel, with results ranging from a new EA logo skin to the entire hacked data set! Enjoy the experience!
For their expensive lootboxes in games.
@Silly_G "780GB doesn’t sound like very much."
In terms of source code and software development tools, it's an enormous amount.
@nhSnork Eh. I'd rather the cybertheives get the money than EA. At least the cybertheives aren't actively targeting children who don't know any better, or skirting around gambling regulations for an extra buck. Plus, who knows, we might end up getting the Boom Blox source code out of this, and god, I want to see that happen, if only so that some dude can make a VR version of it, legal or not.
@Silly_G A complete set of production files can be HUGE compared to actual compressed releases, often several terabytes.
Not that EA had particularly anything worth hiding...
I only had my hopes lifted when EA decided to finally release bigger games onto the Switch, but seriously? It took them 4 years.
If these hacks are targeted to the companies that have done some nasty corporate crap, then I honestly don't mind.
@alexybubble that's the whole point of my sarcasm - approving of crime just so it can "stick it" to some parenthesized kind of Man we have a personal grudge with. Goes to reiterate how perverse and morally bankrupt to the point of ill-natured naivety we fans are. But considering how fans themselves have indulged in cybertheft, that's hardly surprising.
And in case that's somehow not obvious, cybertheft only doesn't "target children" because most of those have little of practical value in their cyberspace.
I suppose with all that EA research and source code in hand we will see the rise of hackers transitioning to a microtransactions-based economy of ransomware. And victims of extortion will long for a time where they could just pay once.
With that source code, they could actually make a good FIFA for the Switch.
@PBandSmelly Hacking one company for 700GB of data is nowhere near as bad as the continued degradation of the gaming industry that EA leads the way on.
Somehow I doubt the Switch will still get any notable games from this. Lol
Don't call it a network intrusion. Refer to it as a surprise mechanic. People like surprises!
Stop setting login creds as admin admin just because you don’t want to have to remember passwords. Ugh their IT infrastructure director is not having a good day.
This is terrible.
Why are people glorifying theft? So backwards.
Calm down everyone. This isn't hacking, its surprise borrowing mechanics.
I really don't care about this, EA are responsible for destroying thousands of lives through their practices, i would love it if EA just went out of business.
The people working for them can eventually move on but EA existing will do more long term damage than killing them off sooner.
They'll buy more studios, kill them off and cost those people their jobs, in fact had EA died long ago, the industry would be more diverse and bigger now.
I know it won't happen but i hope this eventually leads to circumstances that will put this company out of business.
What does this have to do with the Switch? Amirite?
Am I wrong for thinking that EA had this coming for all the bad stuff they did? I don't think so. I could be, but I doubt it.
Maybe now EA will stop being a greedy son of a bitch. This lets them know that we the consumers are not happy with the way the company is going forward atm!!
@westman98 KOEI Tecmo were also hacked over Christmas. Seems to be a group effort with a grudge against the game industry this past year. Lockdown has given people way too much free time!
Hate to say it, but now I'm just curious to see the data leaked in case there's a juicy new Star Wars game or even a Switch game they're developing
They should sell that data back as loot boxes.
@Clyde_Radcliffe I hope so. I'll admit that I'm not entirely sure how the next step process would work, but of course life will go on/business as usual.
I just have a hard time thinking of this as a victimless crime.
I wonder if the thieves managed to get the WiiU version of Frostbite that "didn't exist."
@Bob1998
Recently, it seems otherwise. EA finally gave Nintendo some games, and even though they run like crap or they look boring, it's a start.
The hackers should give EA a single string of code they stole and ask 79.99$ for each next string of code stolen.
Pity they couldn’t hack the records of their abuse of their employees…
@Bob1998 If they hated Nintendo, we would've been stuck to just reskins of a game rather than giving us stuff like Apex Legends.
@Bob1998 I was only listing one of many other examples. Don't you remember the variety of EA games showcased in the previous Direct? As a matter of fact, one of them was first showcased on the Switch before other consoles (Knockout City).
If you've heard the saying "this is just the beginning" (I know, super cliche), then this is it. EA has just started legimitately putting games onto the Switch, rather than "Legacy Editions" of a game that's just a reskin. They just started, so it'll take time before the bigger games come onto the Switch.
The hackers should try to sell the data back to EA but only in microtransactions.
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