Epic Games Dodges Cyber Threat: The Truth Behind the Alleged Hack

Recent days have been a rollercoaster for Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite. Just days ago, the company faced a threat from hackers claiming to have stolen up to 200 GB of data, including emails, passwords, full names, payment information, source code, and more.

However, internal investigations by the company found "no evidence" to support these claims. The team stood firm against the possibility of cybercriminals, known as the Mogilevich group, leaking any of the purported information, as their actions appeared to be nothing more than a poorly orchestrated scam unrelated to the gaming company.

According to the latest update from Cyber Daily, the link allegedly leading to the stolen data instead redirected users to a grand presentation by the Mogilevich group. "Unfortunately, this link directed you to a major announcement of our business rather than evidence of a hacked database," explained a team spokesperson. "You might be wondering why all this happened, and I'll now explain everything you need to know. In reality, we are not a ransomware group but professional scammers."

"None of the databases listed on our blog were real, as you may have recently discovered," continued the group's statement. "We leveraged big names to gain visibility as quickly as possible, not for fame or approval, but to meticulously build our new traffic of victims to scam."

Essentially, as the Mogilevich spokesperson elaborated, the team sold its fake ransomware infrastructure to eight potential hackers (even doubling the price at the last moment). The now self-professed scammers announced they had gained access to the networks of a drone manufacturer (a complete falsehood) and managed to swindle a cybercriminal into paying $85,000 for this bogus information. In short, we're talking about a group dedicated to duping real hackers.

This certainly is a curious tactic. However, with this latest revelation, it's clear that all hackers will be blacklisting Mogilevich, a fact that doesn't concern the team much. Consequently, both Epic Games and the companies "affected" by Mogilevich are in the clear.