Electronic Arts (EA), the largest gaming company gets hacked. Its valuable information has been stolen by hackers.
The hackers downloaded source code for games such as FIFA 21 and the proprietary Frostbite game engine used as the base for many other high-profile games.
According to the information provided by the company about 780GB of data was stolen.
Further EA said – no player data had been stolen in the breach.
Being the world’s biggest gaming giant, it counts major series such as Battlefield, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, The Sims, and Titanfall among the titles it develops or publishes.
‘No risk to players’
“We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen,” an EA spokesperson said in a statement.
“No player data was accessed, and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy,” she added.
The company stated that it did not expect “an impact on our games or our business”, as it has already improved their security.
Law enforcement has also been contacted.
Further, the EA added – The “network intrusion” was not a ransomware attack and had happened recently.
Valuable Hack
What is a source code?
A source code is a version of computer software that is usually much easier to read and understand than the version of the finished product.
It can also be used to reverse engineer parts of the product.
In this case, the hackers claim to have the source code for the Frostbite engine. It is a powerful game creation tool used in numerous games.
This stolen source code could hold a significant value for a corrupt developer who might want to copy it.
They can use this piece of information to make cheat codes and hacks for games.
But it is unlikely that any mainstream competitor to EA would ever use such stolen data.
It is the latest in a string of high-profile gaming company hacks.
Capcom, the creator of Street Fighter and Resident Evil, suffered a similar attack, last year in November. Due to this, the company’s personal information of up to 350,000 people was revealed.
