It seems like for the third month in a row, Cyberpunk 2077 is again in the news but this time it’s more serious. The parent company of Cyberpunk 2077 developer, CD Projekt has been hacked, the company revealed in a statement this morning.
The company revealed that the targeted cyber-attack of its network happened yesterday and one who orchestrated the attack left a ransom note.
Important Update pic.twitter.com/PCEuhAJosR
— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) February 9, 2021
The note in general reads like someone with the mentality of a child from 2007 but the attacker is threatening to sell and leak all the data they’ve gathered from the network they wiped out; CD Projekt confirms they have backups ready. That data includes full source code copies of Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3, Gwent and an unreleased version of Witcher 3.
They’re also threatening to release all documents relating to the company’s accounting, administration, legal, HR, and investor relations divisions. Thankfully, CD Project confirms no data on any personal information of players of its games or users of its services were hacked.
All data will be sent to the attacker’s contacts in the gaming media; which I hope don’t publish that content at all, instead sends any information to CD Projekt and the rightful authorities.
CD Projekt responded by stating they will not give in to the attacker’s negotiation with the attacker in any way. To combat the attack, the game publisher has reached out to law enforcement, the president of the personal data protection office and an IT forensic specialist to officially open an investigation on the attack.
From what I can tell from the ransom note, the attacker had a strong personal motivation to attack CD Projekt Red, unlike other cyber attacks which are motivated to cause an economic impact.
The attacker says their motivation outright in the note, they want to bring down the company’s public image down even more. While reactions are cheering on the hack for CD Projekt releasing a “broken game”, I can’t but help wear my humanity on my skin and feel empathy for the hard-working employees at CD Projekt whose years of hard work is being threatened right now.
I hope everything works out and they find the attacker and bring them to justice. I hope the next time we hear from the makers of Cyberpunk 2077 it’s much more positive news.
