October 2022 Data Breach by GTA Modder Results in Disclosure of 100,000+ Emails

According to a site that tracks cybersecurity incidents, over 100,000 email addresses were exposed in a Grand Theft Auto data breach. It occurred between October 2022 and February 20, 2019. This is also the second time that the franchise has been linked to a data breach within the same timeframe since GTA6 leaked online in 2022.

After Rockstar Games was compromised, YouTube released several clips of GTA 6 in September 2022. The video content has been removed. However, the leak meant that fans were accidentally shown footage of an unfinished Rockstar Games title. Take-2’s CEO referred to the GTA6 leak as “emotional”. He claims that the incident could cause problems for the company in the future. It appears that this wasn’t just the GTA-related security issue to occur in the year.

According to the most recent entry on Have I Been Pwned, 101,000 emails of mode menu provider RealDudesInc had been hacked back in October 2022. While many of these addresses were temporarily guest emails, the leaked data included usernames and password hashes. Another fact that Have I Been Plwned mentions is that 16% (or more) of the leaked data was already on site. This would mean that at least some of these account data were likely to be compromised in another way through previous data breaches.

However, it is worth noting that GTA doesn’t seem to be the only gaming organization that has fallen prey to cybersecurity attacks. Ubisoft suffered a data breach that temporarily affected some of its services and games in early 2022. Fortunately, no data leaked during the incident. Also, in November 2013, GameStop reported a data leak. Despite claims that such a breach did not occur at the time, the company maintained otherwise.

Although the October incident was a third party, it doesn’t look good that the GTA team and their fanbase were the victims of a data breach twice in a matter of two months. It is not yet clear what kind of impact this breach will have, especially with the active participation among modders within GTA. While fans are optimistic about the next installment, it’s unclear how the future will play out for this popular franchise.