Rockstar Games hit by new cyberattack as ShinyHunters threatens data leak

Video game maker Rockstar Games faced another security breach this week, marking the second major incident the company has faced since 2022. The hacker collective ShinyHunters set a Monday deadline for payment negotiations after breaking into company files through an outside vendor’s systems.

“This is a final warning to reach out by 14 Apr 2026 before we leak, along with several annoying (digital) problems that’ll come your way,” the hackers wrote. “Make the right decision, don’t be the next headline.”

ShinyHunters compromised servers run by Anodot, a business monitoring software company, affecting at least a dozen companies when the breach started on April 4. The hackers stole authentication tokens that let them access customer data from cloud storage systems.

Rockstar downplayed the severity

“We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach,” a company representative said, adding the incident has no impact on the organization or players. The studio confirmed it would not pay the ransom.

Take-Two Interactive, which owns Rockstar, saw its shares fall more than 6% during pre-market trading before recovering. Files later surfaced on the dark web, mostly containing user spending patterns rather than game details.

ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility for previous attacks on Microsoft, Cisco, and Ticketmaster. Security researchers link the group to the Com, a network of English-speaking hackers aged 16 to 25.

The Grand Theft Auto franchise ranks among the most successful video game series ever created. Developed at Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Grand Theft Auto V and its online component have brought in more than $8 billion since launching in 2013.

Second major breach since 2022

In 2022, teenage hacker Arion Kurtaj posted 90 minutes of early Grand Theft Auto VI footage after breaking into Rockstar’s internal Slack system. Kurtaj, part of the Lapsus$ hacking group, received an indefinite hospital order in 2023. Rockstar spent $5 million and thousands of employee hours recovering.

Rockstar recently fired more than 30 workers in the United Kingdom and internationally, claiming they shared confidential information publicly. As reported by Cryptopolitan previously, terminated employees said they were being punished for union organizing efforts.

Grand Theft Auto VI carries enormous stakes, with development costs estimated at nearly $2 billion after nearly 10 years of work. Originally scheduled for autumn 2025, the game launches November 19 this year.

Take-Two delivered strong results in early February, with net bookings climbing 28% to $1.76 billion in the fiscal third quarter. The company raised its fiscal 2026 guidance to between $6.65 billion and $6.7 billion. Recurring consumer spending grew 23% and made up 76% of net bookings.

Company leadership projects record net bookings for fiscal 2027 with the Grand Theft Auto VI release. The next earnings report is scheduled for May 15, 2026.

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