Riot Games confirms that source code for MOBA game League of Legends and auto battler Teamfight Tactics has been “exfiltrated” by hackers, along with a legacy version of the company’s anticheat platform. The developer behind Valorant says that it has been issued a ransom email but that it will not pay, saying it is “confident” that the hacks did not compromise player or personal data.
Last week, Riot Games confirmed that systems in its “development environment” had been accessed via a “social engineering attack.” The company has since analysed the hacks and now confirms that source code relating to both League of Legends and TFT was accessed, as well as a “legacy” anticheat platform. The company also says it has received a ransom email, but will not pay.
“Over the weekend, our analysis confirmed source code for League, TFT, and a legacy anticheat platform were exfiltrated by the attackers,” Riot says. “Today, we received a ransom email. Needless to say, we won’t pay. While this attack disrupted our build environment and could cause issues in the future, most importantly we remain confident that no player data or player personal information was compromised.”
Nevertheless, Riot says that the exposure of source code could result in new cheats being developed for League of Legends and TFT and that it is taking measures to minimise the effects of the cyber attack.
“Any exposure of source code can increase the likelihood of new cheats emerging,” Riot says. “Since the attack, we’ve been working to assess its impact on anticheat and to be prepared to deploy fixes as quickly as possible if needed. Our security teams and globally recognized external consultants continue to evaluate the attack and audit our systems. We’ve also notified law enforcement and are in active cooperation with them as they investigate the attack and the group behind it.”
According to Riot, the data exfiltrated during the attack also contains “experimental features” relating to League of Legends and TFT, including prototype content pertaining to new game modes. While Riot hopes that “some of these game modes and other changes eventually make it out to players,” the company says there is “no guarantee it will ever be released.”
“We’ve made a lot of progress since last week and we believe we’ll have things repaired later in the week, which will allow us to remain on our regular patch cadence going forward,” Riot says. “The League and TFT teams will update you soon on what this means for each game.”
Riot also says it is committed to transparency and will release a full report on the attack detailing how its own security controls “failed,” how the attackers gained access, and the steps the company is taking to prevent similar incidents in the future.