Riot Games was recently hit by a hack that delayed updates to some of its most popular titles like League of Legends. It has now also confirmed that source code for League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and a “legacy anticheat platform” have been stolen by hackers. Riot Games reportedly received ransom demands but will not pay.
Riot Games acknowledged that the attack “could cause issues in the future” with things like its game mechanisms and anti-cheat. If the source code is sold off, it could provide malicious third-parties with knowledge of the game’s mechanisms, which could be used to create cheats and more.
The studio confirmed that “no player data or player personal information was compromised.”
Riot Games replied over on Twitter, explaining that “any exposure of source code can increase the likelihood of new cheats emerging. Since the attack, we’ve been working to assess its impact on anticheat and to be prepared to deploy fixes as quickly as possible if needed.”
The code “includes a number of experimental features” that are mostly “in prototype…[with] no guarantee it will ever be released.”
A copy of the ransom email was obtained by Vice’s Motherboard. In it, the hackers demanded $10 million from Riot Games and offered to remove the code from their servers and “provide insight into how the breach occurred.” The initial email provided a deadline of 12 hours, stating that failure to comply would result in “the hack being made public.”
Ransomware Attacks Aren’t Anything New in Video Games
Ransomware attacks against video game studios are not uncommon and they typically have not seen studios respond by paying the ransom at all.
Valve faced the release of source code for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 back in 2020 and said that it had “not found any reason for players to be alarmed.”
In 2021, CD Projekt Red was also hit by a ransomware attack that affected Cyberpunk 2077, Gwent, and The Witcher 3 along with the Red Engine.
The CD Projekt Red code was auctioned after the developer refused to pay the ransom. However, no major cheats or exploits really came out of the source code leak. Gwent, the online deck-builder was slightly targeted, but nothing substantial occurred.
Hey, thanks for reading DZSH! Check out our newsletter too so you can always stay in the loop!
Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
