Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, had reportedly been hacked, resulting in the theft of nearly 200 gigabytes of internal data. In the end, it all turned out to be a hoax.
According to the group known as Mogilevich, they claim to have executed a different type of scam by fabricating ransomware to sell to other hackers. In other words, It wasn’t trying to sell Epic’s internal data, it was trying to sell its fake ransomware infrastructure to would-be fraudsters.
The hack on Epic Games never actually happened.
“Now the real question is, why confess all this when we could just run away?” asked one of the group members in a statement. “This was done to illustrate the process of our scam. We don’t think of ourselves as hackers but rather as criminal geniuses, if you can call us that.”
Cyberdaily has the full statement from Mogilevich.
Epic Games issues Statement to GameWatcher
Epic Games has issued a statement to GameWatcher, denying the claims, saying that it is “investigating but there is currently zero evidence that these claims are legitimate.”
Here’s the statement in full:
“We are investigating but there is currently zero evidence that these claims are legitimate. Mogilevich has not contacted Epic or provided any proof of the veracity of these allegations.”
“When we saw these allegations, which were a screenshot of a darkweb webpage in a Tweet from a third party, we began investigating within minutes and reached out to Mogilevich for proof. Mogilevich has not responded. The closest thing we have seen to a response is this Tweet, where they allegedly ask for $15k and “proof of funds” to hand over the purported data.”
The stolen data is said to include “email, passwords, full name, payment information, source code and many other data,” as reflected in a posting on the group’s darknet leak site, first spotted by Cyber Daily. Thanks VGC.
As expected, the data is up for sale, having a deadline of March 4, 2024. Mogilevich has neither named its price nor provided proof of the hack, although, on its site, it also claims to have successfully targeted Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
If true, this is only the latest in a string of ransomware attacks that have targeted major developers.
Most notably, Insomniac Games had vast quantities of data stolen last year by a different group, which ended up leaking key details, including employee details and information about the studio’s projects.
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