Riot refuses to pay hackers ransom for League of Legends source code

Last week, Riot Games announced its suspicions that the League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics source code had been stolen as part of a social engineering hack. Now, the studio is pushing back against the hacker’s demands.

On Tuesday, Riot Games confirmed the breach – along with a ransom request from the hackers responsible for it. 

“Over the weekend, our analysis confirmed source code for [League of Legends], [Teamfight Tactics], and a legacy anti-cheat platform were exfiltrated by the attackers,” Riot said on Twitter. “Today, we received a ransom email. Needless to say, we won’t pay.”

Riot Games went on to state that it “remains confident” that no personal player data was compromised. However, the studio did warn that this hack could lead to new cheats emerging on its games.

“Our security teams and globally recognized external consultants continue to evaluate the attack and audit our systems,” Riot continues. “We’ve also notified law enforcement and are in active cooperation with them as they investigate the attack and the group behind it.”

For over a decade, League of Legends has been one of the most popular multiplayer games out there – partially due to its enormous esports scene. That focus on hyper-competitive gameplay often leads to plenty of in-game toxicity, but Riot is takings steps to combat it.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.