This Month in Cybersecurity: GTA 6 and Uber Hit with Leaks
It seems that bad actors aren’t just related to Hollywood. As technology increases, and organizations invest more in cybersecurity strategies, hackers elevate their own tactics as well. Even major corporations aren’t immune, which only goes to show the importance of pushing for strong solutions to protect your data like with secure file transfer solution, Globalscape EFT.
September proved to be a busy month for the cybersecurity world and not necessarily the good kind of busy. Organizations such as Rockstar Games, Uber, and American Airlines saw leaks, data breaches, and hacks that shared confidential information online and compromised personal information. Let’s look at some of the biggest stories.
Grand Theft Auto 6 Leaks Online
Rockstar Games, who develops the successful Grand Theft Auto franchise, had been hard at work making the latest installment in the series, Grand Theft Auto 6. On September 19, it was discovered that a hacker had leaked about 90 videos of clips from the previously un-announced game, offering fans a first look at the unfinished game.
The leak was confirmed to be real by Rockstar themselves in a statement and wrote that they had “suffered a network intrusion.”
The alleged hacker claimed to have gained access to the footage through a Rockstar employee’s Slack account. Additionally, the individual took responsibility for another cyber-attack that happened only a few days earlier – this one at Uber.
Uber’s Internal Systems Breached
The allegedly 18-year-old hacker claimed to have gained access to Uber through Slack, the same method that was used to hack Rockstar. The hacker posted screenshots of Uber’s internal systems, email dashboard, Slack server, and critical IT systems such as the company’s security software and Windows domain. Other systems include Uber’s Amazon Web Services console and the Google Workspace admin dashboard for managing email accounts.
In a conversation with security researcher Corben Leo, the hacker claimed to gain access to Uber’s Intranet through social engineering, pretending to be from Uber IT and spamming Uber employees with a Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) fatigue attack until an employee finally accepted the request. This tactic was used against other high-profile companies such as Twitter and MailChimp.
Uber confirmed the attack through Twitter and noted that they were working with law enforcement.
American Airlines Employee Emails Compromised
American Airlines announced in a statement that an “unauthorized actor” compromised the email accounts of a “limited number” of American Airlines employees. While the airline did not confirm the number of employees and customers that were affected by the attack, they had no evidence that the data was misused. The airline said it would offer affected customers a free two-year membership to Experian’s IdentityWorks, which can help detect identity theft.
American Airlines first discovered the attack in July and secured the impacted emails. The company then hired a cybersecurity forensics firm to investigate the breach.
Hack Exposes over 50,000 Revolut Users
An unauthorized third party gained access to more than 50,000 users of Revolut, a financial technology company that offers services in banking, money management, and investments globally.
According to the breach disclosure to the State Data Protection Inspectorate in Lithuania, where Revolut has a banking license, the number of affected customers in the European Economic Area is 20,687, with 379 Lithuanian citizens potentially affected by the breach.
While the exact details of the attack are under wraps, the Lithuanian data protection agency notes that exposed information likely includes email addresses, names, postal addresses, account data, limited payment card data, and phone numbers.
In a statement, Revolut stressed that the third party did not gain access to user’s funds.
Hive Ransomware Attacks New York Racing Association
The New York Racing Association (NYRA) faced a cyber-attack in June and shared with authorities this month that the hacker may have gained access to member information such as Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, health records, and health insurance records.
The NYRA runs the three largest thoroughbred horse racing tracks in New York: Belmont Park, the Saratoga Race Course, and the Aqueduct Racetrack. There were no changes to the racing calendar or to betting after the attack.
Hive ransomware, which is a strain of ransomware that was designed to enable cyber-criminals, claimed responsibility for the attack. Hive is also responsible for attacking organizations such as Bell Canada and the government of Costa Rica.
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