Behind the Ransomware Group Responsible for Stealing from "Elden Ring" Developer

Bandai Namco is seemingly not complying to hackers' demands as data gets published.

Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

On July 11, Stormveil Castle was breached. 

Bandai Namco, the Japanese developer behind 2022’s current best-selling game “Elden Ring” got hacked. And now, with Bandai seemingly unwilling to pay a ransom, the data stolen is being published across the dark web.

It’s the latest attack from ALPHV, a ransomware group known colloquially as “BlackCat” that breached at least 60 organizations worldwide between November 2021 and March 2022, according to an April report from the FBI. 

The group hacked into servers owned by Bandai and stole both corporate and Asian user data, with the company confirming the breach on July 13. 

“After we confirmed the unauthorized access, we have taken measures such as blocking access to the servers to prevent the damage from spreading,” Bandai Namco said in a statement to VGC. “We will continue to investigate the cause of this incident and will disclose the investigation results as appropriate. We will also work with external organizations to strengthen security throughout the Group and take measures to prevent recurrence.”

After threats it would begin publishing the data unless paid by the Japanese games company, the BlackCat group posted a file directory of all the Bandai data on July 16, seemingly beginning to act on its threat.

The BlackCat ransomware program is one-of-kind, the first to be developed in Rust, a programming language thought to be more secure. Once it has obtained the data, the group often threatens its public release and demands payment from the affected company in Bitcoin or Monero, both cryptocurrencies that help hide the identity of the owner’s wallet.