Gaming Giant Capcom was reportedly hit by a Ransomware attack and is being extorted for $11 million.
Capcom is one of the largest game developers in the gaming industry and has produced such titles as Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Mega Man, and Devil May Cry, among numerous others.
In a press release, Capcom revealed that they had been “experiencing issues that affected access to certain systems, including email and file servers.”
They have since confirmed that this was due to unauthorized access carried out by a third party and that it has halted some operations of its internal networks as of the 2nd of November.
Capcom expressed its deepest regret for any inconvenience this may cause to its various stakeholders. Further, it stated that at the moment there is no indication that any customer information has been breached. This incident has not affected connections for playing the company’s games online or access to its various websites.
The news has now surfaced that Capcom was targeted by the Ragnar Locker Ransomware, which is software designed to exfiltrate information from internal networks before encrypting them at which point the victim will be locked out, contacted, and extorted.
This story was broken by Bleeping Computer, which managed to access the Ragnar Locker sample (a ‘proof’ provided to the victim by the hackers), which contains the ransom note allegedly delivered to Capcom. The ransom note said:
“We have BREACHED your security perimeter and get access to every server of company’s Network in different offices located in Japan, USA, Canada. So we has DOWNLOADED more than 1TB total volume of your PRIVATE SENSITIVE Data, including:
Accounting files, Banking Statements, Budget and Revenue files classified as Confidential, Tax Documents. Intellectual Property, Proprietary Business information, Clients and Employees Personal information (Such as Passports and Visa), Incidents Acts .
Corporate Agreements and Contracts, Non-Disclosure Agreements, Confidential Agreements, Sales Summaries. Also we have your Private Corporate Correspondence, Emails and Messanger Conversations, Marketing presentations, Audit reports and a lot of other Sensitive Information. If NO Deal made than all your Data will be Published and/or Sold through an auction to any third-parties.”
Capcom is currently consulting with the police as well as other related authorities while both carrying out an investigation and taking measures to restore its affected systems. The company will continue to offer relevant updates as the facts become clear, via its websites and other means.
The hackers are demanding $11 million in Bitcoin for a decryptor key.
Capcom wasn’t the only company targeted by the Ragnar Locker Ransomware though, as Major drinks maker Campari was also targeted and the hackers are apparently asking for $15 million.
The independent MalwareHunterTeam confirmed that Ragnar Locker is behind the Capcom and Campari hacks, adding that both hacks had the same digital signature.