Bandai Namco confirms the recent ransomware attack

One of the biggest Japanese videogaming companies Bandai Namco according to many reports by malware-watching groups has become the victim of a ransomware attack by the ALPHV group. Bandai Namco, the publisher of Dark Souls, Elden Ring and Soulcalibur, Ace Combat, Dragon Ball series, has confirmed yesterday's reports to be truth and that confidential information was accessed on its servers.

Bandai Namco has provided many authoritative gaming media with the very same statement on the latest events, confirming the fact it was hacked indeed.

“On July 3, 2022, Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. confirmed that it experienced an unauthorized access by third party to the internal systems of several Group companies in Asian regions (excluding Japan)”.

“After we confirmed the unauthorized access, we have taken measures such as blocking access to the servers to prevent the damage from spreading.”

“In addition, there is a possibility that customer information related to the Toys and Hobby Business in Asian regions (excluding Japan) was included in the servers and PCs, and we are currently identifying the status about existence of leakage, scope of the damage, and investigating the cause.”

“We will continue to investigate the cause of this incident and will disclose the investigation results as appropriate. We will also work with external organizations to strengthen security throughout the Group and take measures to prevent recurrence.”

“We offer our sincerest apologies to everyone involved for any complications or concerns caused by this incident.”

The ALPHV group, also known and recognized as BlackCat. Some malware researchers also state it is linked to earlier ransomware such as BlackMatter or Noberus.

They are already targeted by an FBI and boasted their intentions on creating the “ransomware metaverse”. It's also known that the BlackCat group has been advertised on Russian-language underground markets and calls itself “the next generation of ransomware”.

“Without exaggeration, we believe that at the moment, there is no competitive software on the market.

In addition to high-quality software, for advanced partners, we provide the full range of services related to ransom – metaverse or premium concierge – call it whatever you want. We are in a different weight category, so we don't recognize anyone, and we won't do TikTok ransomware houses. Separately, we want to thank the media for a detailed and honest review of the malware. The results speak for themselves ,” said an ALPHV representative in February.

It's newmade strategy relies on publishing victims' information to the clear web, so that it gets indexed by search engines and can be seen by the public. From there we already may know some interesting facts on future releases coming in 2023.