Posted on December 23, 2021 at 3:50 PM
Ubisoft confirms an exploit in Just Dance’s infrastructure
Ubisoft, a gaming giant company, has announced that a cyberattack has affected its IT infrastructure. The company noted that the breach targeted Just Dance, a popular game on the platform.
Ubisoft noted that the incident resulted from a “misconfiguration, that once identified, was quickly fixed, but made it possible for unauthorized individuals to access and possibly copy some personal player data.”
Ubisoft’s Just Dance suffers breach
Ubisoft’s report on the breach noted, “the data in question was limited to ‘technical identifiers’ which include GamerTags, profile IDs, and Device IDs as well as Just Dance videos that were recorded and uploaded to be shared publicly with the bin-game community and/or on your social media profiles. Our investigation has not shown that any Ubisoft account information has been compromised as a result of this incident.”
Ubisoft has not issued any report on the number of users affected by this breach. The company adds that the preliminary investigations on the reach have not shown any signs that any account has been compromised because of the incident.
The note from Ubisoft stated that those whose accounts have been affected by this breach will receive an email from the firm. The email will contain information from Ubisoft’s support team on the extent of the incident.
Ubisoft has advised players to set up two-factor authentication processes and reset their passwords to prevent further attacks. The firm also added that it had taken measures to protect itself from cyberattacks in the future.
“Ensuring the privacy of player data is a top priority for Ubisoft, so with full transparency, we wanted to update the community around this incident. All players impacted by this will receive an email shortly and can follow up with our Support team for more info. We have taken all the proactive measures to secure our infrastructure from future incidents, and we thank you for your understanding,” the note concluded.
Just Dance is one of the leading games on Ubisoft. It was launched in 2009, and over the years, millions of copies have been sold. Additionally, this is not the first time Ubisoft has suffered a breach on its network.
In October last year, the Egregor ransomware hacking group announced that it had breached Ubisoft’s software. The hacking group stole data from this firm and leaked around 20 MBs of this data. However, Ubisoft did not issue any report on this breach.
In 2013, Ubisoft also suffered from another attack. a report from BBC regarding this stated that the breach led to the accounts of 58 million people being accessed.
Developer exodus on Axios
A report from Axios revealed that developers were leaving Ubisoft because of a wide range of factors. Over the past 18 months, an exodus of developers gaming companies has been witnessed, but Ubisoft has suffered the largest blow.
Ubisoft has an employee base of more than 20,000 people, making it one of the largest workforces in the gaming sector. Top talents from the companies are spearheading the exit. According to Axios, five people involved in Far Cry 6, Ubisoft biggest game in 2021, have left. Additionally, twelve developers accredited to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Developers are not the only ones leaving the gaming giant. Middle and low-level employees are also leaving, affecting the human resources at the large gaming studio. Data from LinkedIn shows that Ubisoft’s studios in Montreal and Toronto have lost at least 60 workers during the past six months.
Axios interviewed some of the developers at the company, who revealed that the departure had slowed down projects. One of the developers who left the company stated that he was contacted by a colleague at the firm to help solve an issue. This was because none of the developers left had the technical expertise needed.
The leaving employees have given a wide range of reasons why they are parting ways with Ubisoft. Some of the contributing factors include low pays, competitive opportunities in the gaming market and lack of trust in Ubisoft’s creative path. Some also said the departures were triggered by Ubisoft’s workplace misconduct scandal in mid-2020.
One of the developers also noted that recruiters were poaching employees from Ubisoft because of the company’s well-known issues. Another noted that the firm’s management and the lack of adequate resources by developers. “There’s something about management and creative scraping by with the bare minimum that really turned me away,” one stated.
The Axios report did not reveal the developers’ identities that aired the issues being faced by developers at the company.
