CAPCOM Gaming Giant Gets Hit With A Ransomware Attack

CAPCOM gaming giant got hit with a ransomware attack with the hackers demanding more than $11 million in BTC to let them recover 2TB of stolen sensitive data. In our latest bitcoin scam news, we find out more about the attack.

Ransowmare attacks are on the rise and they represent the most commonly used method to perform crypto-related criminal activities this year with the targets ranging from city halls and universities to hospitals and factories. This week, the hackers claimed a new victim- the CAPCOM gaming giant. Capcom is the corporation behind popular games like Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, and Megaman.  The company’s data is worth $11 million in BTC.

At the start of November 2020, Capcom issued a statement informing that it became a target of a computer attack. The Japanese corporation didn’t comment much on the nature of the attack and only said that it paused some operations but it did notify the authorities. Starting in the early hours on November 2, some of the CapCom group networks experienced issues that affected access to some of the systems, including email and file servers. The company confirmed that this was due to the unauthorized access that was carried out by a third party and that it has halted some operations of the internal networks as of the same day.

However, the crypto cybersecurity expert with knowledge on malware under the pseudonym Pancak3lullz was able to analyze a few parts of the malware’s code and said that the company was hit with a piece of ransowmare developed by a group under the name “Ragnar Locker.” The analyst said that Ragnar Locker was able to encrypt about 2000 devices on Capcom’s networks asking for $11,000,000 worth of BTC in exchange for the key to decrypt the stolen data which is now inaccessible to the company.

Among the data, Capcom is risking document files, passports, sales reports, contracts, and bank statements.  The growing number of ransowmare attacks is just another addition to the crypto industry as many hackers demand payments in BTC or Monero from victims. It all comes down to the difficulty of tracking funds and the ease of making transfers from anywhere in the world. in the past few months, the type of attack became very popular to the point that estimation shows that every 10 seconds, at least 1 business suffers a random attack. In 2016, the numbers were close to one attack every two minutes.