Stolen Insomniac data, including Wolverine secrets, held for ransom

Sony’s first-party studio was hit by a ransomware attack

Insomniac, the development studio that released Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 this year, is the victim of a ransomware attack, according to cyberdaily.au. The group seemingly responsible for the attack has posted proof on its website, which includes highly sensitive data like the passports of current and former employees as well as a screenshot and artwork from the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine game the studio is working on. Examples of emails and confidential documents have been leaked as well.

Even personal information of voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, who plays Peter Parker in the series of games made by Insomniac and was nominated for an award for his performance at The Game Awards 2023, is among the stolen data that was shown off.

Venom's face probably mirrors the feelings at Insomniac about this situation / Sony

Insomniac Games is given seven days to buy its data back from the group for an unknown sum. Once the ultimatum runs out, the hackers intend to sell the entire package off to the highest bidder. An auction for this purpose is currently underway with the starting price being set at 50 Bitcoins, which is close to $2 million USD at the moment.

Insomniac’s parent company Sony has suffered two known data breaches already this year, so this marks the third time the gaming giant or one of its subsidiaries has been hit by a successful attack in 2023.

Back in 2011, a large hack of Sony compromised millions of PlayStation Network accounts, exposing personal information that was associated with them and taking PSN down for over twenty days – this historical disaster is one of the reasons why Sony’s security is often in the spotlight.