A little over a month ago, Motherboard reported that EA had been hacked. Someone (or a group of someones) had purchased a Slack token online that allowed them to worm their way into EA's network and sneak off with 780GB of data before anybody noticed.
The data mostly dealt with EA's Frostbite engine, which powers FIFA 22, Battlefield 2042, Star Wars: Squadrons, and more, along with internal tools and software development kits. The plan from the outset seemed to be ransom, and now it seems like that plan has come to fruition.
According to Motherboard, who has been tracking this issue by hanging out on dark web message boards, the hackers have released part of the 780GB data trove online in the hopes that it will prompt EA to pay a ransom demand.
"Few week ago we send email for ransome [sic] to EA but we dont get any response so we will posting the src [source]," read one online message. "If they don't contact us or don't pay us we will keep posting it."'
A compressed data cache contained 1.3GB of the stolen code, which references internal EA tools and Origin Store information. The hackers also provided Motherboard with screenshots that appeared to be for The Sims.
The hackers have "repeatedly claimed they have sent ransom demands to EA," but have yet to receive a response, said Motherboard.
An EA spokesperson confirmed that the publisher is aware of the data dump but believes that the hackers don’t have anything worth paying a ransom over.
"We're aware of the recent posts by the alleged hackers and we are analyzing the files released,” EA told Motherboard in a statement. “At this time, we continue to believe that it does not contain data that poses any concern to player privacy, and we have no reason to believe that there is any material risk to our games, our business, or our players. We continue to work with federal law enforcement officials as part of this ongoing criminal investigation."