According to a recent revelation, a data breach related to GTA modders from October 2022 exposed over 100,000 emails and other pieces of information.
About 100,000 email addresses were exposed in a Grand Theft Auto modder’s data breach in October 2022, according to a website that tracks data-related cybersecurity occurrences. Interestingly, when GTA 6 was leaked online in 2022, this is the second time in the same time frame that the franchise has been linked to a data breach.
Many trailers for the upcoming GTA 6 were posted on YouTube in September 2022 after Rockstar Games was allegedly compromised, according to reports. Fans were accidentally fed footage of an unfinished version of one of Rockstar Games’ most eagerly awaited games, albeit the content has already been taken down. The CEO of Take-Two referred to the GTA 6 leak as “emotional,” and he said that the episode might have long-term effects on the company. Nonetheless, it appears that there were other GTA-related security incidents this year.
According to one of the most recent postings on Have I Been Pwned, RealDudesInc, the company that provides GTA mod menus, had roughly 101,000 emails compromised back in October 2022. However, the disclosed information also included usernames and bcrypt password hashes, despite the website’s claim that many of these addresses were temporary guest emails. Furthermore, according to Have I Been Pwned, 16% of the data that was stolen was already on the website. This indicates that a significant portion of the account information was probably obtained in another way during earlier data breaches.
Of course, it’s important to remember that GTA isn’t the only game company to experience cybersecurity problems. In truth, Ubisoft experienced a breach at the beginning of 2022 that briefly affected its services and some of its titles. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like any data had gotten out during the incident. However, in the same year, a data breach was detected at the store GameStop in November. Although the business asserted that there was no such breach at the time.
The fact that the GTA franchise and its fandom have been the target of a data breach twice in two months is concerning, even though the October incident involved a third party. With the active involvement of modders in GTA, it is currently unknown how big of an effect this specific breach will have on the community. Only time will tell how the popular franchise’s future will play out, however, fan hopes for the upcoming GTA game are sure to be high.
