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Rockstar Games, makers of the massively popular Grand Theft Auto video game series, confirmed this morning it suffered a major data breach over the weekend—and there are early indications a recently notorious hacker might be responsible. Just before 3:30 a.m. yesterday, over 90 video files showcasing early alpha design footage from the much anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 were posted to the fan site, GTA Forums, from the username “teapotuberhacker.” The same user posted a tease for additional releases of “GTA 5 and 6 source code and assets, [and the] GTA 6 testing build.” It’s already considered to be one of the largest leaks in video game history.
[Related: Teaching machines to drive with ‘Grand Theft Auto.’]
Aside from the pseudonym’s reference, multiple outlets note there are already some similarities between this jaw-dropping hack and last week’s debacle at Uber. A purportedly 18-year-old teenager pulled one of the oldest tricks in the book to gain access to essentially all of the ridesharing company’s data stores and Slack channels just days ago.
“We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto [sic],” Rockstar Games posted to Twitter this morning. “At this time, we do not anticipate any disruption to our live game services nor any long-term effect on the development of our ongoing projects.”
As Forbes and elsewhere note, “teapotuberhacker” references gaining access to Rockstar’s Slack server, as well as its team-working Confluence wiki, recalling the same methods used by Uber’s online intruder. The hacker also claimed on GTA Forums they are attempting to extort Rockstar in exchange for the remaining unreleased data, including GTA 6‘s source code. Still, the theory that the same young hacker is behind both stunts is currently unconfirmed.
PopSci will continue to monitor the ongoing TeaPots hacker saga, and update accordingly.
