Hackers Demand Ransom From Electronic Arts

Last month we made a report that gaming giant company Electronic Arts (EA) had been hacked with valuable data of about 780GB stolen, now the same hackers who had stolen the data from EA have moved from trying to sell that data to now releasing parts of it publicly. In one message on a forum accompanying the data dump, the hackers say explicitly they are trying to extort EA as well.

“Few weeks ago we send an email for Ransome [sic] to EA but we didn’t get any response so we will be posting the src [source],” one of the posts from the hackers reads. A compressed, 1.3GB cache the hackers released appears to include references to internal EA tools and the company’s Origin store, according to a copy viewed by Motherboard. “If they don’t contact us or don’t pay us we will keep posting it,” the hackers threatened.

The data they stole totals in at around 780GB, Motherboard previously reported. That data includes source code for the Frostbite engine, used in games such as Battlefield; internal development tools, and software development kits (SDKs). The hackers also provided Motherboard with screenshots that appear to show data related to The Sims.

In a statement on Tuesday, an EA spokesperson told Motherboard “We’re aware of the recent posts by the alleged hackers and we are analyzing the files released. At this time, we continue to believe that it does not contain data that pose any concern to player privacy, and we have no reason to believe that there is any material risk to our games, our business, or our players. We continue to work with federal law enforcement officials as part of this ongoing criminal investigation.” EA added it has made security improvements in the wake of the incident.

In messages over the past few weeks to Motherboard, the hackers have repeatedly claimed they have sent ransom demands to Electronic Arts. At the time, EA told Motherboard it had not received such a demand. The company now said it has faced an extortion threat.

At one point, the hackers asked Motherboard to directly deliver an extortion message to EA on their behalf. Motherboard declined to do so. Now, the hackers have publicly aired their extortion attempts themselves. Motherboard previously reported that the hackers broke into EA by purchasing a Slack login token from an underground market. The hackers then moved through EA’s network before finding the source code and other data.