Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore, the free-to-play MMORPG indie game published by Gellyberry Studios, is the latest victim of a ransomware attack. The attack destroyed 17,000 player accounts, in-game items, and progress in the game.
The news was confirmed on the game’s official Discord channel.
Randomware attack hit the main service and encrypted all data including local backup. Now attackers are asking for a payment in exchange for a decryption key. Game developers decided to restore all affected systems by themselves instead of paying attackers. The only good thing is that no customer data was accessed.
The incident has impacted all 17,000 players and their data. The company says that impacted players will get their items and progress. They will also be gifted a premium “pet” as a gesture of appreciation. The company will also start increasing the frequency of offline backups to avoid such issues in future. They will also implement a P2P VPN for remote access to protect the development server.
The game is still in early development and is available on Steam as an ‘Early Access’ release. It relies on community support and subscriptions to continue its development.
Also see: Best Ransomware Protection Tools
This is not the first time a gaming company suffered a ransomware attack. Back in February 2021, CD PROJEKT RED became the target of HelloKitty ransomware. Riot Games also faced a ransom demand of $10,000,000 in January 2023.
Now that ransomware attacks are increasing, gaming companies should actively protect their systems to avoid being victims of ransomware. They should keep a regular backup of critical data, including game assets, source code, and other essential files. The backup should be stored in a secure location. Companies must keep all the software up to date and always apply security patches as soon as they are available. They should also educate their employees about the risks of phishing and social engineering attacks. There must be a secure firewall and implementation of an access system to limit the potential impact of a ransomware attack. Enforcing multi-factor authentication for access to sensitive systems will add another layer of security. Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments will also help.
Cybersecurity is an ongoing process and requires efforts to stay ahead of evolving threats.
