Japanese Gaming Giant Capcom, creator of popular games like Resident Evil and Street Fighter, fell victim to a ransomware in early November, with attackers allegedly demanding $11 million in bitcoin in exchange for not leaking illegally obtained confidential information to the public, CoinDesk Japan reported Tuesday.
In a Nov. 4 press release, Capcom said that the group’s networks had come under attack in the early morning hours of Nov. 2. The attacks affected “certain systems” including email and file servers and there was no indication that any customer information was breached, the announcement said. The company is currently consulting with local law enforcement on the investigation into the attack.
In Oct 2020, Japan’s government and schools came under attack from extortionists demanding bitcoin, threatening acts of violence. Similar reports had surfaced before in Austria.
On Tuesday, Nikkei Japan reported that a group calling itself “RAGNAR LOCKER” had succeeded in downloading 1 terabyte of sensitive data from Capcom, including personal information of employees and customers on Nov 9. In return for not leaking the information, the attackers are reportedly requesting that the company contact the organization by 8:00AM (Japan time) on Nov 11.
Japanese media organization Asahi Shimbun also reported on Nov. 9 that some of Capcom’s internal servers and computers were infected with ransomware, and certain company operations were temporarily suspended. When a network is infected with ransomware, user access is restricted. Ransomware creators then demand ransoms from affected companies and others to lift the restrictions.
Asahi’s TV news program “Hodo Station” said on Nov. 10 that cybercriminals may be demanding Capcom pay a ransom of 1.1 billion yen ($11 million) in Bitcoin, CoinDesk Japan reported.