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Rockstar Games, the developer of Grand Theft Auto, has been targeted by hackers for the second time in three years. Cybersecurity news outlets reported the data breach on Saturday after a hacking group claimed responsibility. The criminals stated they accessed Rockstar’s servers via a third-party cloud provider and threatened to publish stolen material online unless a ransom was paid.
However, Rockstar has downplayed the breach, saying "this incident has no impact on our organisation or our players".
"We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach," a Rockstar Games spokesperson said.
The hackers responsible for this latest breach called themselves ShinyHunters. They are a prolific group of English-speaking cybercriminals, thought to be in their teens, who specialise in data theft and extortion. They previously claimed to be behind a hack targeting gig ticket operator Ticketmaster.
In the last two years the criminals have repeatedly broken into cloud storage systems used by major corporations and claim to have done the same with Rockstar Games.
ShinyHunters said the stolen data would be published online as their demands had not been met.
Law enforcement advice around the world is not to pay cybercriminal ransoms as it fuels the industry and there is no guarantee hackers will actually delete stolen data.
The incident marks the second time the blockbuster game developer has been hacked.
In 2023 an 18-year-old British hacker called Arion Kurtaj was given an indefinite hospital order after hacking into the company and stealing data, source code and video clips of the unfinished GTA 6 game.
The damaging hack saw 90 video clips of incomplete gameplay for Rockstar's highly-anticipated new game published in online forums - prompting the firm to release its trailer for the game ahead of schedule.
