Riot Games hacked, patches halted

The popular gaming company, Riot Games, is the victim of a debilitating social engineering attack, shutting down its entire development department.

The California-based gaming giant posted the announcement on Twitter for its 2.7 million followers late Friday.

Riot Games said the attack, which took place sometime this week, had “compromised systems in our development environment.”

The company, known as the leader in player-focused gaming, assured followers that player data and personal information had not been compromised in the attack.

“Earlier this week, systems in our development environment were compromised via a social engineering attack. We don’t have all the answers right now, compromised in social but we wanted to communicate early and let you know there is no indication that player data or personal information was obtained,” the company said.

Earlier this week, systems in our development environment were compromised via a social engineering attack. We don’t have all the answers right now, but we wanted to communicate early and let you know there is no indication that player data or personal information was obtained.

undefined Riot Games (@riotgames) January 20, 2023

The company went on to say the attack had temporarily affected its ability to release new content. They also warned regular patching would also most likely be affected across multiple games.

Unfortunately, this has temporarily affected our ability to release content. While our teams are working hard on a fix, we expect this to impact our upcoming patch cadence across multiple games.

undefined Riot Games (@riotgames) January 20, 2023

Riot Games tweeted its fans to be patient as the investigation continues.

Please be patient with us as we work through this, and we’ll keep you posted as we continue our investigation.

undefined Riot Games (@riotgames) January 20, 2023

Known for developing, publishing, and e-tournaments, the gaming company lists over 4500 employees, or “Rioters,” located throughout more than 20 offices worldwide.

So far there is no information on where or how the attack originated.

A social engineering attack tricks a user into performing a behavior based on deceptive tactics, for example, opening a fake email or clicking on a malicious link.

Social engineering attacks often rely on catching the user off guard and can also happen in-person or over the phone, such as an attacker pretending to be someone he is not to obtain sensitive information.

Riot Games' most popular gaming franchises include League of Legends, Valorant, Legends of Runeterra, and Teamfight Tactics.

League of Legends has gone on to be the most-played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports, according to the company’s website.