Moneycontrol PRO
Loans
HomeNewsTechnologyActivision Blizzard employee, game data stolen by hackers

Activision Blizzard employee, game data stolen by hackers

The data contained employee details, contact information, and scheduled content for Call of Duty

February 22, 2023 / 13:16 IST

Activision Blizzard, the maker of popular games such as Call of Duty and Candy Crush, has reportedly suffered a data breach resulting in employee data, including contact and financial information, being leaked online.

Content plans for Call of Duty were also stolen in the breach.

When reached for comment, Activision spokesperson Joseph Christinat told TechCrunch that the company's security team "swiftly addressed an SMS phishing attempt and quickly resolved it" on December 4, 2022.

"No sensitive employee data, game code, or player data was accessed," Christinat said.

Also Read | UK’s competition authority says Microsoft Activision deal will harm gamers

The statement contradicted twitter user @vxunderground. The user claimed that the unknown hackers managed to get into the system by successfully phishing "a privileged user on the network" and stole "sensitive work place documents" and scheduled content plans for their games, "dating to November 17th, 2023".


This tweet was verified by Insider Gaming which managed to obtain the entirety of the data breach. The data contains employee contact information, salaries, and information on planned content for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty 2023 (Jupiter) and Call of Duty 2024 (Cerberus). 

Also Read | Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick calls Sony out, says company is 'trying to sabotage' Microsoft takeover

Activision not only hid the breach until the tweets were posted online, it also didn't alert employees.

Speaking to TechCrunch, two employees said the staff were not allowed to interact with the press and information on whether their data was accessed was not disclosed.

Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day

Moneycontrol News
first published: Feb 22, 2023 01:16 pm

Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!

Advisory Alert: It has come to our attention that certain individuals are representing themselves as affiliates of Moneycontrol and soliciting funds on the false promise of assured returns on their investments. We wish to reiterate that Moneycontrol does not solicit funds from investors and neither does it promise any assured returns. In case you are approached by anyone making such claims, please write to us at grievanceofficer@nw18.com or call on 02268882347