Riot Games Receives Ransom Demands After Cyberattack | RiftFeed

Riot Games Receives Ransom Demands After Cyberattack

News 24-01-2023 18:19
Project ekko
Hackers demand ransom from Riot. | © Riot Games

Last week, Riot Games was the victim of a cyberattack where the source code of League, Teamfight Tactics, and an anti-cheat platform was exfiltrated. If leaked, this will have significant consequences for the different games. Now the attackers are demanding Riot Games pay a ransom.

In the midst of the new season, Riot Games has been affected by a cyber-attack. On January 20, Riot Games made their fans aware that their development environment systems were compromised in a social engineering attack.

Someone has gotten their hands on Riot Games' source code for League of Legends, TFT, and a legacy anti-cheat platform and is now demanding Riot to pay a ransom.

Riot Refuses to Pay Ransom

Today, Riot Games made us aware that the attackers have sent Riot Games a ransom email, asking for money in exchange for not leaking information. Of course, Riot Games did not want to comply with the request and went on Twitter to clarify the issue at hand and to be as transparent as possible. 

In the Tweet, Riot explains the issues they would face if the source code were to be leaked. Firstly, if the source code is exposed, it will increase the likelihood of more cheats appearing in the game. Also, many experimental features not currently in the game will be leaked to the public. These are features that Riot Games are trying out which could come into the game in the future, but it is no guarantee that they will ever be released. 

Riot also wanted to clarify that they are confident no player data nor any of the player's personal information were compromised in the attack.

The attack also causes Riot Games to fall behind schedule with specific changes planned for the upcoming patch. The Riot Security team is currently continuing to evaluate the attack at hand and is also cooperating with law enforcement to investigate the people behind the attack.

Anti-Cheat Work Pushed Forward

As Riot Games mentioned at the beginning of the season, they already had plans to work furtherly on a new anti-cheat system for 2023. According to Spideraxe, due to the recent attack, this work will now be pushed forward in hopes of minimizing new cheats.

To finish it, Riot Games promises they will be as transparent as possible going on forward in this situation. They also promised they would release a full report about the attack and elaborate on where Riot Games failed.

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Maia Jacobsen

Hi I'm Maia, a recent University graduate from Norway, ready to work in the media field and becoming a key player in the esports and journalism sphere. That's why I started working here at Riftfeed as a content intern before...