Hacking forums are filled with stolen data to be sold or published due to the failure of payment in ransomware attacks. An unknown poster published an alleged file that contains Activision employee records, stolen back in December 2022.
Activision Breach
The hackers upon posting on the forum stated that they had 19,444 unique records of employee information, which consists of names, phone numbers, job titles, locations, and emails. It was also emphasized that it was "great for phishing."
The threat actors claim that they have stolen sensitive data from the Activision Azure database, posting it for everyone to access. This could be connected to the December 2022 breach confirmed by Activision back on February 21st, 2023.
An HR employee from the video game publisher had fallen victim to an SMS-based phishing attack, resulting in the employee giving away their credentials. However, the company's information security team immediately addressed the issue and resolved it.
Other sources say that most employees did not fall for the phishing attack, but they also did not report the security incident right away to the Activision Information Security Team, according to a tweet by @vxunderground on Twitter.
Upon further investigation, Activision claims that no sensitive employee data, game code, or player data was accessed, as mentioned in Bleeping Computer. They also mentioned that leaked details about upcoming game content are already public marketing materials.
Leaked Data
Contrary to the video game publisher's statement, other reports claim that the text file does contain sensitive employee details. The details found by a different researcher matched the data said to be leaked on the hacker forum.
Aside from sensitive employee information consisting of full names, corporate emails, and phone numbers, the text file also reveals plans for the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 DLC, Call of Duty 2023 (Jupiter), and Call of Duty 2024 (Cerberus), as mentioned in Insider Gaming.
In the unconfirmed leaked data regarding Call of Duty 2023, several potential contents for the year were revealed. For one, there will be seven core maps that may have hints of the older maps, as well as a "Haunting of Saba" event for November.
There are also signs of licensed operators per season which could mean that the game will show content brought by collaborations or crossovers. Additionally, there could be more Spec Ops missions, Raids, and Gunfights.
It was also leaked that there is a small map that will be released with Season 4 of the game, which could be around May 15th, 2023 to July 16th, 2023, along with at least 240 bundles, with 70 bundles per season.
As for key dates, the first beta might be released around October 6th to October 10th for PS4 and PS5. The second beta could be released from October 12th to October 16th for PS4, pS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.
The Early Access could be released by November 2nd for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. The Full Release for the mentioned devices might happen by November 10th, although all the leaked information might've already changed.
