According to a breaking news story first developed by Vice, hackers have stolen some valuable information from the major game publisher Electronic Arts. The company said the attackers allegedly claimed to have stolen source codes from games such as FIFA 21 and the source code from Frostbite, a propriety game engine used as a base for some of the most high-profile games on the market.
News of the hack was initially covered by Vice’s new site which stated that around 780GB of data had been stolen from the hack. The gaming giant EA is one of the largest gaming companies in the world. Some of their franchises include Battlefield, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Solider, The Sims, and Titanfall just to name a few.
In an underground hacking forum viewed by Motherboard, the hackers went into detail about the information they stole. Alongside FIFA 21 and Frostbite, hackers claimed to have illegally downloaded EA software development kits, bundles of codes, and EA frameworks. The hackers are now trying to sell the EA data they have in the private forum posts–these posts have been locked and can only be accessed by members of this underground hacking forum. It wasn’t until a group member screenshotted the posts and alerted Vice News about the said breach. Here’s what the hackers had to say according to the screenshots sent to Vice:
You have full capability of exploiting on all EA services.
EA has confirmed to Motherboard that it suffered a breach and that the hacker’s claims of what they stole are indeed true. EA said in an official statement to Motherboard:
We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and releated tools were stolen. No player data was accessed, and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy. Following the incident, we’ve already made security improvements and do not expect an impact on our games or our business. We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation.
Alongside forum posts, the hackers shared screenshots of “proof” claiming that they did have access to EA data, but they did not publicly distribute detailed information of the internal data itself.