Posted on February 28, 2023 at 8:53 AM
Hacker posts an alleged file containing data belonging to Activision employees
Hackers usually use hacking forums to dump data stolen from past hacking attacks. Recently, an unknown user in a hacking forum published a file that allegedly contains information about the employees at Activision. The data was possibly stolen in December 2022.
Hacker might have breached Activision in 2022
The hackers posted an alleged file that contained data about Activision employees. After publishing the post on the forum, they said that they managed to access 19,144 unique records of employee information at Activision. The employee records include the names, phone numbers, job titles, emails and locations.
The hackers noted that the stolen information was “great for phishing.” Phishing campaigns usually rely on personal data to launch large scale attacks by tricking employees or customers to give the hackers access to their computer systems.
The hackers claimed that they obtained the sensitive data from the Activision Azure database. They posted the data to the public, allowing everyone to access it and possibly exploit it in the future. The data might have been stolen in December 2022 in a hacking attack that was confirmed by Activision on February 21, 2023.
One of the HR employees at the video game publisher was targeted by an SMS-based phishing campaign. The employee fell victim to the tricks used by the hackers, and ended up sharing their credentials with the attacker. However, the information security team at the company addressed the matter and rapidly resolved the issue to prevent more related attacks from happening.
Other sources with information about how Activision handled the matter said that the majority of employees at the video game publisher did not fall victim to the phishing attack. however, these sources noted that the employees did not report this security incident on tike to the security team at the company.
Activision said that it conducted an in-depth investigation into this phishing attack. According to a report by Bleeping Computer, the company claimed that no sensitive employee information, game code or player data was accessed because of the breach. At the time, the video game publisher also said that some of the leaked details about an upcoming game by the company were already publicly available in marketing materials.
Leaked data undermines Activision’s statement
The data leaked by the hackers show that they obtained access top more information than what Activision admitted to. The video game publisher had said that the hackers did not manage to access any employee records. However, the file posted by the hackers allegedly contains personal details belonging to thousands of employees.
Another researcher matched the data posted by the hackers on the hacking forum, and the employee information at Activision, and found that the leaked information was accurate. The sensitive employee information published by the hackers consists of full names, phone numbers and corporate emails.
Activision also denied that the hackers managed to access corporate details about an upcoming game, saying that the leaked data was obtained from marketing materials released by the company. However, the leaked data shows that the hackers might have managed to access more details about the upcoming game than the company had shared with the public.
The text file published in the hacking forum includes plans for Activision’s upcoming Modern Warfare 2 DLC, Call of Duty 2023 (Jupiter) and Call of Duty 22024 (Cerberus). The leaked data on Call of Duty 2023 includes several potential content that could be included in the game. The data shows that there will be seven core maps in the game that might contain hints of the older maps. There is also a “Haunting of Saba” event slated for November.
There are also details pointing towards licensed operators for each season, indicating that the game will have content created through crossovers of collaborations. There could also be more raids, gunfights and Spec Ops missions.
The leak also shows that there will be a map that will be unveiled during the fourth season of the game scheduled for between May 15 2023 and July 16 2023. The first beta for the game could be released between October 5 and October 10 for PS4 and PS5. The second beta is slated for October 12 to October 16.
The leaked information also says that the early access for this game could be in November 2 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC, with the full release of the game slated for November 10. Nevertheless, there is a possibility that these details could change because of the leak.
