An attempt is being made by a hacker collective to pull the Sony subsidiary studio Insomniac back to earth while it is currently in the middle of celebrating the successful launch of Spider-Man 2.
According to reports, the studio was breached by the infamous ransomware organization Rhysida, who then shared a number of screenshots from Insomniac's upcoming Wolverine game.
For the return of the data, they are requesting that Insomniac give them 50 bitcoins, which is worth almost $2 million. It has also been alleged that Rhysida has obtained confidential information belonging to the employees of Insomniac.
Rhysida's website has screenshots of birth certificates, passports, employee emails, and social security cards, including information about Spider-Man 2 voice actor Yuri Lowenthal.
"We are aware of reports that Insomniac Games has been the victim of a cyber security attack,” an SIE representative told Polygon when they asked for comment. “We are currently investigating this situation. We have no reason to believe that any other SIE or Sony divisions have been impacted.”
Both the FBI and U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a warning in November about Rhysida, that the hacking group was a credible threat and should be taken seriously.
In a joint statement, the FBI and CISA wrote, "Observed as a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model, Rhysida actors have compromised organizations in education, manufacturing, information technology, and government sectors and any ransom paid is split between the group and affiliates. Rhysida actors leverage external-facing remote services, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), Zerologon vulnerability (CVE-2020-1472), and phishing campaigns to gain initial access and persistence within a network."
Rhysida has given Insomniac 7 days to supply the requested funds or they'll leak all the documents they've stolen.
Rhysida, who is thought to operate out of Russia, was also behind November's cyber attack on the British Library which resulted in the personal information from the Library appearing online for sale.
More recently, a hacker leaked details for Grand Theft Auto VI online a year before the game's big unveil a few weeks ago. The hacker, 18-years-old, and a member of Lapsus$, a cyber-crime group was apprehended and sentenced to jail. However, he's already reportedly stated that upon his release, he'll return to hacking.
Although an exact release date for Insomniac's Wolverine game is unknown, it is anticipated that players will have the title in their hands by late-2024 or early-2025.