Following a targeted cyberattack, source codes for the game developer CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 (including an unreleased version) and Gwent: The Witcher Card Game have all been reportedly sold at auction on the dark web for $7 million.After the cyberattack, which left the game developing company's game data as well as documents related to accounting, legal, HR and investor relations compromised, a ransom note was delivered to CD Projekt Red, threatening to either sell or leak their information "if we will not come to an agreement." According to IGN, an auction was created on the online forum XSS to sell the stolen files where bidding began at $1,000,000, moving up in $500,000 increments. The darknet intelligence reporter KELA, which was monitoring the auction, announced that the bidding was closed when the hackers, under the name redengine, received "a satisfying offer from outside the forum." The buyer was not identified, but it was noted that the purchase was made "with the condition of no further distribution or selling."
Shortly after the initial attack, CD Projekt Read issued a statement to the public. "Yesterday, we discovered that we have become a victim of a targeted cyber attack, due to which some of our internal systems have been compromised," CDPR tweeted. "An unidentified actor gained unauthorized access to our internal network, collected certain data belonging to CD PROJEKT capital group, and left a ransom note the content of which we release to the public."
Cybersecurity experts who have analyzed the ransom note have unofficially identified the perpetrators of the attack as the hacking group HelloKitty, and the game developer has been in contact with authorities, who are still investigating the incident. CDPR's statement read, "We are taking necessary steps to mitigate the consequences of such a release, in particular by approaching any parties that may be affected due to the breach." The statement also mentioned that the developers would neither negotiate nor pay any kind of ransom, fully aware that this could lead to the release of company data.
CD Projekt Red's latest release, Cyberpunk 2077, has experienced a wide range of controversies, from the game reportedly inducing seizures to the company admitting the release was unfit for certain consoles. CD Project Red apologized to its consumers for the poor quality that heavily contributed to the game's rocky launch. The apology, made by co-founder Marcin Iwiński, states that the company is committed to fixing the bugs and crashes and hopes fans will stick by them as they release further updates and improvements.
Developed by CD Projekt Red, Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia and PC.