Hackers stage Epic hack
A group announced earlier this week that they had successfully breached Epic Games and taken 189GB of data, including user information. They are now retracting their statements, claiming that they staged the whole event to deceive real hackers.
The group, which goes by the online handle Mogilevich, claims to have accomplished this by promising to sell potential hackers the technology needed to get access to Epic Games. Naturally, the technology and data they sent on—assuming they sent any—would be worthless if the attack had never occurred. According to Mogilevich, it sold this information to eight customers without demonstrating its ability to breach an organization such as Epic.
Epic gaming scam developments
Only a few days have passed since the "hack" was originally made public. After allegedly stealing "emails, passwords, full names, payment information, source code" from its assault on Epic, Mogilevich appeared to be attempting to ransom the data back to the business.
However, Mogilevich has since altered the narrative entirely. Since it's possible that the gang pulled off a hack and this was all misdirection, we cannot confirm whether or not their account of events is accurate. It does, however, correspond with Epic's statement that there was "zero evidence" of any hacking at all.
A Mogilevich member is said to have said, "You may be wondering why all this, and now I'm going to explain everything you need," on a page that it had previously promised would contain information from the Epic breach. "In reality, we are not a ransomware-as-a-service, but professional fraudsters."
Gang aimed to get new contacts
In explaining its methodology, Mogilevich claims that it staged the operation to make fresh connections for fraud. As per the gang, everything went as planned in this aspect, with aspiring hackers reportedly sending over tens of thousands of dollars.
"We don't think of ourselves as hackers but rather as criminal geniuses, if you can call us that", the message continues. They acknowledge that their goal was to acquire access to new "victims to scam," but ideally, users and employees of Epic Games are not among these victims.
Epic still needs to respond to this revelation.
