Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 game maker HACKED – but is refusing to pay the ransom

THE game developer behind Cyberpunk 2077 and the hit Witcher series has confirmed it has been hit by a major cyberattack.

In a statement on Tuesday, Polish outfit CD Projekt Red said hackers had infiltrated its internal network, stolen data and left a ransom note.


Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 game maker HACKED – but is refusing to pay the ransom
The makers Cyberpunk 2077 have been hit by a major cyberattack

The attackers claim to have stolen code for some of the firm’s biggest games as well as other internal files and have threatened to leak them unless a payment is made.

CD Projekt Red (CDPR) has said it will not negotiate with the hackers.

Alongside a statement on the incident which the developer posted to Twitter, CDR also posted a copy of the ransom note left by the attackers.

In it, they claimed to have made copies of source code for games Cyberpunk 2077, Gwent and The Witcher 3, as well as an unreleased version of the latter.

The note gave the gaming firm 48 hours to respond.

“Yesterday we discovered that we have become a victim of a targeted cyberattack, due to which some of our internal systems have been compromised,” CD Projekt Red said in its statement.

“An unidentified actor gained unauthorised access to our internal network, collected certain data belonging to CD Projekt capital group, and left a random note the content of which we release to the public.

“Although some devices in our network have been encrypted, our backups remain intact. We have already secured our IT infrastructure and begun restoring the data.”

The developer said it would “not give in to the demands nor negotiate with the actor”.


Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 game maker HACKED – but is refusing to pay the ransom
Hackers claimed to have infiltrated CD Projekt Red’s internal network and stolen source codes for games including Cyberpunk 2077

According to the company, while it was still investigating the incident, it could confirm that “to the best of our knowledge – the compromised systems did not contain any personal data of our players or users of our services”.

CDPR also confirmed that it was in touch with law enforcement and data protection officials.

It’s the latest in a long line of disasters that have befallen the Warsaw-based outfit since the release of Cyberpunk 2077 on December 10, 2020.

Despite the game’s lengthy development and sky-high budget, engineers are scrambling to iron out a handful of early issues stumbled upon by players.

Gamers have largely reported crashes on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, with the game bugged down by poor frame rates and screen tearing.

Following a tidal wave of complaints, Sony pulled the game from the PlayStation store within days of release.

CDPR has pledged to refund customers who were unhappy with their experience.

In January, co-founder Marcin Iwiński promised that the team was working hard to fix the game’s issues.

He pledged to release a string of “major” software updates throughout 2021 to end the glitches and crashes that have plagued players since launch.

“Our ultimate goal is to fix the bugs and crashes gamers are experiencing across platforms,” he said.

In other news, cyber security buffs have issued a warning over dangerous Cyberpunk 2077 scams that could rinse your bank account.

The game was pulled from the PlayStation store shortly after release.

Read our verdicts on the Xbox Series X and PS5 – if you can buy either.

What do you think of the hack fiasco? Let us know in the comments!