Hackers who stole information from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac Games have released much of that data into the wild, reportedly after Sony refused to pay a ransom for the return of those files. The group–Rhysida –demanded a payment of 50 Bitcoin (around $2 million) within seven days, and after the deadline passed, the hackers followed up on their threat by releasing 1.67 terabytes of information related to upcoming Insomniac projects.
According to Cyber Daily, 98% of the stolen data has been released and contains information on Insomniac’s upcoming Wolverine game and the next decade of projects that the studio is working on. Sensitive information such as internal HR documents, employment forms, and screenshots of Insomniac’s Slack channels were also included in the stolen files released online. Rhysida claims to have acquired employee passport scans, internal mails, and other confidential documents in its attack, but it’s not clear yet if these have also been released publicly or were included in the 2% that may have been sold.
Various games industry professionals have condemned Rhysida’s attack on Insomniac and Sony, taking to X/Twitter to express their outrage. Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail, Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy Entertainment, and God of War Ragnarok developer Cory Barlog are just some of the voices that have gone online to express their disapproval of the situation.
Our sympathies to @insomniacgames and all the affected team members. 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.
— Remedy Entertainment (@remedygames) December 19, 2023
What happened to Insomniac is not a “leak;” it was a malicious blackmailing by hackers that dragged people’s personal info and privacy into the mix. Every outlet, every influencer, using material procured by these hackers in their own “news” and “content” should be ashamed.
— Eric Stirpē (@stirpicus) December 19, 2023
My heart goes out to everybody at Insomniac Games. This is beyond fucked up – hackers leaking game data is already really fucked up, but leaking employee data is absolutely inexcusable.
— Rami Ismail / رامي (@tha_rami) December 19, 2023
Sony has yet to post a response, but we’ll update this article if and when the company does make a public statement.
