Insomniac studio victim of cyber attack

This time, it was not the villains who got caught in the spider's web, but the honest developers, who in recent years have been diligently preparing new Spider-Man games for PlayStation and also for PC. The hackers demanded two million in compensation from Insomniac to preserve the stolen data, otherwise they would reveal it to the public or to the highest bidder.

Since the attack, hackers have leaked some details about the upcoming games as well as footage revealing gameplay elements of the upcoming Wolverine game. According to the BBC, personal data of employees and internal e-mail were also allegedly stolen.

Other game developers, journalists and fans came to the defense of the much-loved studio and condemned the cyber attack. They urged others not to share the stolen content and use it to create any new content.

The developer of another highly successful game, Alan Wake 2, Remedy Games, wrote on the social portal X that they sympathize with "all affected team members." They understand how much effort and the dedication of the entire team is required to develop AAA games, especially of such proportions as Spider-Man.

“No one deserves this. The hackers also exposed the personal data of employees, which is truly shameful and rude," Remedy Games wrote.

The attack had serious consequences. Story information and files, the cast of the next Wolverine game, gameplay videos, animations, and design files are spreading across Reddit, Imgur, and elsewhere. Stolen information about planned and undisclosed games is also spreading, not only from Insomniac, but also from parent company Sony.

They also have information on the studio's plans up to 2035, including future Spider-Man games, Ratchet & Clank, new intellectual property development and a possible Wolverine sequel, as well as expansion into the larger X-Men franchise.

The attack was claimed by cyber group Rhysida, which also attacked the British Library last month and stole employee contracts and other sensitive data. A spokesperson for the Rhysida group (yes, they have a spokesperson) said the motive was purely financial. Studio Insomniac was described as an "easy target", hacking was very easy for their hackers. It only took them 20-25 minutes to hack the domain admin.

A ransomware attack involves infiltrating a computer network and waiting (often for months) for the best opportunity to steal as much data as possible. Game studios have been a frequent target of hackers lately.

Last year, the Rockstar Games studio faced similar problems when hackers leaked some details about the much-anticipated game GTA VI. The attack was carried out by another hacker group, which in the past also targeted Uber and the graphics giant Nvidia.