Key Points:
- The notorious ShinyHunters hacking group claims it stole nearly 80 million data records from video game developer Rockstar Games.
- Hackers accessed the Rockstar data through a security compromise at an artificial intelligence analytics firm called Anodot.
- The stolen information reportedly includes sensitive in-game revenue metrics and player behavior tracking data.
- Data management company Snowflake confirmed the incident but clarified its own core platform was not directly hacked.
A notorious hacking group has just claimed responsibility for a massive cyberattack against one of the world’s largest video game developers. The group, known as ShinyHunters, announced that it had successfully stolen nearly 80 million sensitive data records from Rockstar Games. Rockstar is the famous development studio behind massive entertainment franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption.
The hackers first bragged about the massive data theft on Saturday. They posted the explosive claim directly to a website frequently used by the ShinyHunters collective. Cybercrime research platform eCrime.ch spotted the post and quickly collected the data. This particular hacking group has a long, documented history of successfully compromising major global corporations and stealing massive amounts of digital information.
A representative from the ShinyHunters group provided more details during an online chat with Reuters on Monday. The hacker claimed the group currently holds exactly 78.6 million data records belonging to Rockstar Games. They said they pulled all of this information directly from Rockstar’s corporate account hosted by Snowflake, a massive cloud data management company used by thousands of large businesses.
The hackers did not break into Snowflake directly. Instead, the ShinyHunters representative explained they accessed Rockstar’s sensitive Snowflake data through a completely different company. The hackers exploited a security compromise at Anodot, an artificial intelligence-powered business analytics platform that Rockstar used to process its data. By hacking the analytics tool, they gained a back door into the massive Snowflake database.
So far, the victims have remained quiet. Rockstar’s parent company, the massive New York-based publisher Take-Two Interactive Software, did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment regarding the alleged breach. Reporters also could not reach a representative for the Israel-based Anodot outside of the company’s normal business hours.
Snowflake, however, quickly responded to the situation to protect its corporate reputation. A company spokesperson sent an email clarifying exactly what happened. The spokesperson stated firmly that this incident was not a direct compromise of the core Snowflake platform or its secure environment. Instead, the massive data breach occurred strictly as a result of the security compromise over at Anodot.
Snowflake did take immediate action once it realized something was wrong. After the company’s security team discovered highly unusual activity on the network, they moved quickly to stop the bleeding. The spokesperson explained that Snowflake proactively disabled all user accounts that referenced Anodot, thereby preventing those accounts from connecting to the main Snowflake servers.
The stolen data could prove highly valuable to competitors or digital criminals. The popular tech industry news site Bleeping Computer reported on the specific contents of the stolen files. According to the site, the massive data dump includes highly sensitive financial data, such as in-game revenue and purchase metrics. It also includes detailed player behavior tracking and complex game economy data for Rockstar’s two most profitable online games: Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Online.
While the claims sound serious, independent reporters at Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the stolen data. Furthermore, the ShinyHunters representative refused to answer questions about extortion. The hacker declined to comment on whether the group demanded a massive cash ransom from Rockstar Games. They also refused to say if they had any direct interaction with executives at Rockstar or Take-Two Interactive.
This type of indirect cyberattack has become incredibly common over the last year. Hackers frequently target third-party vendors to access the massive databases of larger companies. In fact, hackers targeted more than 160 different Snowflake customers in similar data theft and extortion attempts over several months in 2024. Those previous high-profile victims included major global brands like Ticketmaster, Santander Group, and Advance Auto Parts. The Rockstar Games incident proves that no company is completely safe from a determined hacking group.
