Elden Ring and Dark Souls publishers, Bandai Namco, reportedly ransomed by hacker group

Recent reports have been stating that Bandai Namco, the publisher behind Elden Ring and the Dark Souls series, has been held to ransom by a hacker group.

According to vx-underground, the group that goes by ALPHV has reportedly infiltrated the publisher’s company network security and has claimed to have successfully ransomed Bandai Namco.

In the tweet, they reported that:

“ALPHV ransomware group (alternatively referred to as BlackCat ransomware group) claims to have ransomed Bandai Namco.”

While this comes as quite a surprise to the community, this is not the first time that a game development or publishing company has been attacked in recent years. Back in 2020, Capcom’s servers were compromised, closely followed by CD Projekt Red in 2021, a few months after Cyber Punk 2077 went live.

However, all of the companies refused to pay the ransom, and it's likely that the same will be the case for the Elden Ring publishers as well if the reports on them being held for ransom are more than just speculation.

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Elden Ring publishers might have been targeted by a ransomware attack

For those unaware, Ransomware is a software that tries to systematically encrypt all the files and information on a particular system or network of systems, thereby effectively blocking access to it. By completing the process and breaching the company’s network security, those who launch the attack will then look to sell the information that they have encrypted back to the company itself.

While there are more intricacies to it, this is how normal ransomware works, and over the years, many developers and publishing houses have fallen victim to it.

It’s important to note that ransomware attacks don’t particularly target video game files in general. Hacker groups generally try to grab as much information as possible from the company's network and encode it as they go along discovering files.

The range of information they have encrypted in the past in other organizations includes personal employee information, company financials, and more that has been leaked to the public or held to ransom.

Over the past decade, ransomware has become one of the most popular means of extortion in cyber security attacks. The ALPHV or the BlackCat ransomware group is notorious for their past exploits, and according to many industry leads, they have successfully attacked over 60 organizations worldwide in their career.