League of Legends developer Riot Games has been the victim of a cyber attack. Now the developer has reported details and a ransom demand.
Riot Games already announced last week that such an attack had taken place, which, among other things, ensured that content such as patches for several games could not be published at times.
The developer of games like League of Legends, Valorant and TFT was still reluctant to give details at the time.
Now Riot reported on Twitter with a more extensive statement.
Player data probably safe – Riot defends itself against ransom demands
This was stolen: Riot explained in a series of tweets that it conducted analysis over the weekend that revealed source code for League of Legends, TFT, and an older anti-cheat platform had been stolen by the attackers.
This attack harbors the danger that new cheats could emerge in the future. Riot therefore looked into the impact of the attack on anti-cheat systems in order to be able to deploy fixes as quickly as possible if necessary.
At the same time, Riot emphasizes that “although this attack has disrupted our build environment and may cause problems in the future, we are confident that no player data or player personal information has been compromised” (via Twitter).
In addition, Riot explains that they received a ransom demand by email. But here the developer is clear: “Of course we will not pay.”
According to Riot, the source code should also contain some experimental features, such as game modes that could end up in games in the future. However, these are all prototypes for which there is no release guarantee.
What’s next? Riot has already engaged the appropriate bodies: “Our security teams and globally recognized external consultants continue to evaluate the attack and check our systems,” says the developer: “We have also informed law enforcement authorities and are actively working with them as they investigate the attack and investigating the group behind it” (via Twitter).
In addition, Riot wants to provide a detailed report in the future about what actually happened – including the actions of the attackers and the places where Riot’s security controls would have failed. So the developer wants to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
According to Riot, many things will be repaired over the course of the week so that the usual patch rhythm can be continued: “The League and TFT teams will soon inform you about what this means for the individual games”.
Cyber attacks are common in the gaming world. Experts recently warned, for example, about GTA Online on the PC – accounts are at risk there.