Nobody Wants LoL's Source Code? Hackers Lower the Price of Stolen Data
The hackers responsible for the recent attack on Riot Games are apparently having trouble fencing their loot. The minimum price for League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics source codes and anti-cheater software has been lowered.
It turns out that the loot of the hackers who hacked the servers of Riot Games, was larger than initially expected. Esports Heaven independently confirmed, that in addition to the source codes of League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics and Packman anti-cheater software, two other apps of the latter type were stolen. Their names are Demacia and Xigncode3 - all indications are that both were used exclusively in Asian countries.
Despite such a large loot, the hackers - who sign online as Arkat_001 - are apparently unable to sell it for the desired price. After Riot Games decided not to pay a $10 million ransom for not making its property public, it was auctioned on the black market for a minimum price of $1 million. Now, however, it has been reduced to a "modest" $700,000.
The hacking was allegedly successful thanks to a text message sent to one of Riot Games' employees, which - unbeknownst to him - enabled the criminal to obtain a Riot director's security pass. The hackers reportedly did not use malware or any sort of intrusion software. Their target was the source code of Vanguard - the anti-cheater software that protects the FPS Valorant, which uses a rootkit, making it difficult to develop cheats that circumvent it.
Despite stealing 572,000 files (72.4 GB of data), the goal was not achieved. Experts say this was prevented by the relatively quick response of Riot's cybersecurity division, which neutralized the attack in 36 hours. This is suspected to be due to .json files designed to analyze potential attacks and report on them through a connection to the intrusion detection system (IDS).
The hackers, on the other hand, claim - or at least that's what Esports Heaven, which contacted them, reported (screenshots of the messages were published to prove it) - that they had access to sensitive player data (email addresses, etc.), as well as a panel that enables users to send Riot Points (a premium currency in the developer's games, generally purchased with cash). Interestingly, Riot Games said that no such data was stolen.
