Hackers Breach EA, Claim to Have Stolen Company Source Code

Hackers have breached Electronic Arts, the publisher behind Battlefield, Mass Effect, and FIFA. 

EA confirmed the breach on Thursday after Vice reported that hackers are allegedly selling the company’s stolen computer code in an online forum. 

“We are investigating a recent incident of intrusion into our network where a limited amount of game source code and related tools were stolen,” an EA spokesperson said. “No player data was accessed, and we have no reason to believe there is any risk to player privacy.”

EA added that it doesn’t expect the breach to affect any games or its business. Nevertheless, Vice points out the hackers claim to have stolen 780GB of data, including source code for the company’s Frostbite gaming engine and for FIFA 21.

The forum post advertising the stolen code says the hackers gained access to FIFA 21’s matchmaking server, software frameworks for “many proprietary EA games,” and API keys for the upcoming FIFA 22 game. 

“You have full capability of exploiting on all EA services,” the forum post goes on to claim without elaborating. As proof, the post links to screenshots of the stolen files, and offers up an internal email EA sent to Denuvo, an anti-tampering provider. The hackers behind the sale are asking interested buyers to contact them for the price. 

In response to the breach, EA said it’s already bolstered its IT security. “We are actively working with law enforcement officials and other experts as part of this ongoing criminal investigation,” the company spokesperson added. 

The breach echoes the ransomware attack on game developer CD Projekt Red, which also led to the theft of company data. Reportedly, the same stolen data is starting to leak on forums.