Video game giant Activision is investigating a hacking campaign that’s targeting players with the goal of stealing their credentials, TechCrunch has learned.
Somehow, the hackers are getting malware on the victim’s computers and then stealing passwords for their gaming accounts and crypto wallets, among others, according to sources.
Zeebler described the effort as an “infostealer malware campaign,” where malware designed as legitimate-looking software unknowingly installed by the victim surreptitiously steals their usernames and passwords.
Zeebler told TechCrunch that he found out about the hacking campaign when a PhantomOverlay customer had their account for the cheat software stolen.
After that, Zeebler said he contacted Activision Blizzard as well as other cheat makers, whose users appear to be affected.
Three months after completing its $68.7 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees in its gaming divisions.
This amounts to about 8.6% of 22,000 Microsoft employees in gaming.
Blizzard president Mike Ybarra also announced he will step down, now that the acquisition is finalized.
According to game developer and consultant Rami Ismail, about 5,600 gaming employees have been laid off so far in 2024.
Thats more than half of all gaming layoffs from 2023.
Activision Blizzard, which publishes hit games like the Call of Duty franchise and World of Warcraft, agreed to pay $54 million and committed to implementing measures to ensure fair pay and equitable promotions.
“If approved by the court, this settlement agreement represents a major step forward and will bring direct relief to Activision Blizzard workers,” California Civil Rights Department Director Kevin Kish said.
Activision Blizzard operates out of its headquarters in Santa Monica, California.
In February, Activision Blizzard agreed to a $35 million settlement with the SEC over its failure to “implement necessary controls to collect and review employee complaints about workplace misconduct,” ultimately obscuring that information from being disclosed to investors.
Longtime Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, deeply embroiled in the years-long controversy, will depart the company at the end of the year.
This news comes as a surprise to many, as the CMA had only handled a handful of antitrust investigations throughout the years and was relatively unfamiliar with video game industry…
After gaining access to some internal employee and game data, the hackers were able to publish a list of unreleased games on their website. This included games that belonged to…
