Riot Gameshas refused to pay the ransom for stolenLeague of Legendssource code, the company said on January 24. The Los Angeles-based studio recently fell victim to a majorhack that made it delayLeague of Legendsupdatesas a precaution.
Riot first communicated the news of the attack last Friday, while it was still probing the extent of the breach. The company said it decided for an early disclosure to reassure the fans that there’s nothing suggesting the hackers managed to obtain any player data or personal information.
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Following a security audit, Riot determined that the hackers managed to steal source code forLeague of Legends,competitive auto-battlerTeamfight Tactics, and one of its legacy anti-cheat systems. The social engineering attack targeted the company’s development environment, so the parties behind it presumably managed to get away with uncompiled, and thus easily readable, C++ source files. Riot received a ransom email on January 24 but has no intention of caving in to the attackers' demands, the studio revealed on Twitter.
Given how source code exposure has the potential to facilitate the emergence of new cheats, the developer is now closely monitoring the situation and has been preparing to deal with a potential influx of new player hacks with quick hotfixes. The fact that Riot had to divert resources to bolstering its anti-cheat measures likely played a part in the decision to delay majorTeamfight TacticsandLeague of Legendsupdates. The company also revealed that the stolen files contained some experimental features that aren’t guaranteed to ever release but might be leaked now that their source code is out in the wild.
Riot expects to resume its regularLeague of LegendsandTeamfight Tacticsupdate development cycles by the end of the week.Valorantappears to have been unaffected by the cyber attack. The Tencent-owned company says it already notified and is closely cooperating with law enforcement authorities who started investigating the group behind the attack. It also vowed to publish an in-depth report detailing the hackers' techniques and “areas whereRiot’s security controls failed,” as well as all the steps it’s taking to ensure something like this doesn’t happen in the future.
Between the newly disclosed cyberattack and the recentbacklash over theLeague of LegendsSeason 2023 cinematic, Riot isn’t exactly having the best start to the year. That notwithstanding, its transparent approach to dealing with the fallout of the hack seems to follow the best security practices to a T, indicating that the company has a firm handle on the situation.
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