The makers of The Witcher say thieves have stolen design documents for their next game, Cyberpunk 2077. And those thieves demanded a ransom — that the developers say they won’t pay.
Concept art for Cyberpunk 2077
In a tweet today, Polish developer CD Projekt Red said that it would not be acquiescing to a ransom demand laid out by “an unidentified individual or individuals” with access to early design documents for Cyberpunk 2077. “We will not be giving in to the demands,” the company said, “which might eventually lead to the files being published online.”
Their full statement:
— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) June 8, 2017
A representative for CD Projekt Red confirmed to Kotaku that this statement is legitimate but would not offer more details.
CD Projekt Red has not yet announced a release date for Cyberpunk 2077. The company’s last game, The Witcher 3, is widely considered to be one of the greatest role-playing games ever made.
Comments
15 responses to “CD Projekt Red: Thieves Stole Cyberpunk 2077 Documents, Asked For Ransom”
that seems pointless, as the recent article on Bioware seems to show that post and pre production is a whole different beast.
also stealing from an (arguably) universally loved studio is bound to bring the wrath of the community upon you
Paying ransoms will just lead to even more ransoms.. We are probably in this situation today because certain people/companies have given in to ransom demands!
It doesn’t help when there are people like this idiot out there that advise paying ransoms.
Two different beasts. Depending on how valuable the data is (time/money) and how likely recovery of data is, it is completely reasonable to pay up to recover said data. In a company setting (particularly large companies) it is simply quicker & therefore cheaper to pay a few hundred bucks then have support staff spend hours and hours for the POSSIBILITY of recovering data that might be time critical.
Obviously these scenarios are judged on a case by case basis.
Does it suck? Yes. Does it possibly encourage this sort of shit behavior to continue? Undoubtedly. But that’s business, it’s the world we live in, and if you think that the world isn’t full of greys then you are a fool.
I dare say that CD Projekt Red’s decision here isn’t (purely) about “making a stand”, rather a simple cost benefit analysis that dictated “eh, screw em we don’t need those docs and any damage they cause can easily be mitigated by other means.”
The beast in this instance is psychology, which is the same – if an action is rewarded it will be taken again. The more people pay blackmailers, ransoms, hijackers, terrorists, etc. the more they will see it as a valid means of getting what they want.
It’s never a good idea to pay for ransomed data, whether you’re an individual or a company, whether it’s a stolen copy or an encrypted original. Especially where a security compromise was involved, you absolutely cannot trust what’s on the compromised machine nor that the valuable data you wanted to recover isn’t infected.
The fact is if you haven’t already taken a backup, the point where you’re being blackmailed is too late to safely recover the data. The only safe option is to wipe the machine and either restore from a backup or learn a lesson about IT security and start over.
while i agree – there are instances where this does become applicable.
Losing a child and then losing all the memories you have of the short time you spent together are worth the money and the effort.
Holding their clothes and toys for the smell doesn’t always substitute to see the smile or hear the laughter again.
While i agree that you should always back up, not even one has the funds, the means or the expertise to ensure they have complete security of their files. I’m sure majority of the ransomware attacks hit those that arent as savvy.
There is a counter argument for every argument – but i know when i lost two drives with the only copy of my photos – i paid much more than what was being asked to recover it.
Every coin has two sides.
I’m happy to rephrase as ‘almost never’ if you prefer. It’s not something that should be a normal consideration for the majority of people. Even in your photo example I wouldn’t necessarily say it was a ‘good idea’ to do it that way, even if you got what you wanted in the short term.
Look, while I agree that perhaps from a moral/ethical standpoint it often isn’t a good idea (as I already said in my original response), from a business standpoint it is often worth it. If you can’t accept that you’re simply not living in the real world and god help any company ever unfortunate enough to have you as a member of tech support…
It’s good to know you’re the kind of person who resorts to ad hominems when someone doesn’t agree with you. I do work in IT, I deal with IT security pretty regularly, and my company is happy enough with my work to give me a 38% pay increase earlier this year.
I stand by my position: ransoms should almost never be paid, and in the corporate world ransoms should never be paid. If your company is even susceptible to them in the first place, your IT staff have completely failed in their jobs.
Thanks for participating.
I remember when hackers did things for fame – just to have their ID and a message displayed for the sake of it. Even the later, more malicious ones didn’t try to extort money.
Fuck this new breed intent on extorting cash. There’s no point to prove and no public interest.
These type of hackers have always existed. They are just more prominent in the public eye now.
They could always just release the docs themselves and screw over the international crimering that stole them, and no doubt also took their daughter.
I gotta say ill do as they say (e.g. ignore anything that’s leak). As it says, they are so old documents things will have changed anyway, and what good will come from it. I would rather enjoy the game when it comes out then get some glimpse of something that might not even be in the end title.
I did that with the design docs from TW3 – didn’t touch them even though they were spread widely until after I’d finished the game. It was interesting to see what had changed along development, but if you’d seen them before playing the game, it wouldn’t have amounted to much.
we should solve this issue the cyberpunk way.. crowd fund a strike team of mercs to hunt them down 🙂