Rockstar Games Confirms Early Grand Theft Auto VI Footage Was Stolen by Hacker

On Monday, Rockstar Games, a prominent American video game publisher, disclosed that it fell victim to a significant network breach. This incident enabled an unauthorized party to illicitly download early game footage for their highly anticipated title, Grand Theft Auto VI.

In a statement shared across its social media platforms, the company reassured its users that there would likely be no interruption to their current game services, nor would this incident adversely affect the development of their ongoing projects. The company emphasized its commitment to maintaining operational integrity in the wake of this intrusion.

According to Rockstar, a third-party entity was able to access confidential data from its systems, although specifics regarding the type of information accessed remain unclear. The leaked data reportedly includes about 90 videos featuring clips from Grand Theft Auto VI, made public over the weekend on GTAForums by a user identified as “teapotuberhacker.” It appears this individual may also be linked to a recent breach involving Uber.

The perpetrator, known as “Tea Pot,” is suspected to be an 18-year-old teenager. While specific details about the hacker are still emerging, their capabilities have raised concerns within the cybersecurity community. In one of the forum posts, teapotuberhacker noted that these videos were downloaded from Slack, suggesting the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) bombing techniques to circumvent additional security protocols.

Motivated by financial gain, the hacker reportedly seeks to negotiate a deal with Rockstar, threatening to leak more content if the company fails to comply with their demands. This attempt at coercion underscores the increasingly complex landscape of cybersecurity threats facing businesses today.

Given the nature of this breach, several tactics from the MITRE ATT&CK framework may be relevant. The adversary likely used techniques for initial access, such as exploiting misconfigured applications or leveraging credentials to infiltrate the system. Persistence methods could have included establishing backdoors to maintain access, while privilege escalation techniques may have been employed to gain elevated permissions within the network.

As the investigation continues, Rockstar Games faces the dual challenge of securing its systems against further intrusions while also managing the fallout from this incident. This breach serves as a stark reminder for businesses of all sectors about the persistent threats posed by cybercriminals and the need for robust security measures.