Hackers broke into the systems of the world’s largest video game developer – American company Electronic Arts. They got 780GB of data, including the source codes of FIFA and Battlefield series.
A spokesman for Electronic Arts stressed that the attack on the network was not an act of extortion, similar to the attack on the JBS U.S. meatpacking business. “We are looking at a recent case where limited amounts of game codes and related tools were stolen from our network,” an EA spokesperson said.
It also added that the company has no reason to believe that there are any risks regarding player privacy. “We’ve already increased security after what happened, and we don’t expect any impact on our game or business. We are actively cooperating with law enforcement and other experts on this criminal investigation,” a company spokesperson told us. The hack was first reported by Vice, which cited the hackers from an online forum in which they shared their success. A CNN spokesman confirmed that the company’s claim was in response to Vice’s report.
The hackers announced their hack on July 6. With their statement, they confirmed that they had obtained 780 GB of EA, including the original version of Frost Bite, which is the engine for the game series of video games FIFA Madden / Battlefield, software development tools and server code for selecting players FIFA 2022.
According to a cybersecurity expert, Emsisoft threat analysts, the loss of the source code could be a problem for the company. “In theory, the source code could be copied to other developers or used to create game hacks,” he said. Another Check Point contributor, Ekram Ahmed, noted that it’s “not good” always when hackers find out the source codes. The possibility of selling the source code on the underground market was swept up.