The ‘Spider-Man 2’ video game studio has fallen victim to a massive ransomware attack.
Perpetrators identifying themselves as the Rhysida group demanded a staggering $2 million from Insomniac, a subsidiary of Sony, in exchange for keeping sensitive information about the title confidential.
As the cyber siege unfolded, a deluge of stolen data, including details of upcoming releases and work-in-progress footage from Insomniac's highly anticipated ‘Wolverine’ game for the PlayStation 5, inundated the internet.
The breach reportedly encompassed private employee data and internal company emails, as revealed in a leak listing obtained by BBC Newsbeat.
Gamers, along with game developers, journalists and fans of Insomniac’s titles, swiftly denounced the attack, with impassioned pleas not to share or republish any of the compromised content.
Remedy Games, the developer behind ‘Alan Wake 2’, expressed solidarity with the affected Insomniac team members by condemning the leak.
The company took to X to offer its sympathies to "all the affected team members".
It said: “After all the effort and dedication they have poured into their games, they didn’t deserve this.
“No-one does. The hackers also leaked employee's personal information, which is truly disgraceful and shameful.”
Despite Insomniac's limited official disclosures about the ‘Wolverine’ game, such as a teaser trailer in 2021 and a promise of a "mature" tone akin to the ‘Spider-Man’ series, the ransomware incident has thrust the studio into an unwanted spotlight.
Hacking group Rhysida previously targeted the British Library in a similar attack.
Ransomware, a malicious method that infects a company's computer network and encrypts its files, has become an increasingly prevalent threat to game developers.
The latest incident follows a pattern of high-profile game studio breaches, with last year's leak of ‘Grand Theft Auto 6’ details from Rockstar Games another high-profile example of the attacks.
Rhysida has previously been linked to cyberattacks on Uber and Nvidia.
