Sponsored By

Report: Activision failed to tell employees of 2022 data breach

The data breach at Activision occurred in late 2022 and reportedly includes personal information of its employees.

Justin Carter, Contributing Editor

February 21, 2023

1 Min Read
Screenshot of a soldier in a ghillie suit in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.

Activision was hacked in December 2022, and according to TechCrunch, its employees weren't even aware of the breach until this past weekend. 

Hackers reportedly managed to phish an employee at the Call of Duty publisher on December 4, 2022, and were able to access internal data related to games and employees. Developers only learned of the attack either via Twitter screenshots of stolen data. 

Those hackers told TechCrunch they successfully accessed spreadsheets that featured full names of employees (and their work emails), telephone numbers, and the offices where several developers worked.

A pair of anonymous employees alleged that Activision hadn't yet informed employees about the breach and if their personal data was stolen. One of them told the outlet that "if there is employee’s information involved, they should have disclosed the breach."

When Activision Must Report Breaches

Per California law, Activision is legally required to notify victims of data breaches when its affects 500 or more state residents. Several of the publisher's subsidiaries, the Blizzard arm of the publisher, and the parent company itself are based in California. 

When TechCrunch contacted a spokesperson for Activision Blizzard, they didn't respond to a request for comment. During the initial news of the breach, they told TechCrunch a phishing attempt via SMS was "quickly resolved, " and determined that "no sensitive employee data, game code, or player data was accessed.”

The data breach at Activision comes nearly a month after source code for Riot Games' League of Legends was obtained by hackers. And both of those came months after Rockstar Games was hacked, leading to the release of in-progress footage for Grand Theft Auto VI

About the Author

Justin Carter

Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com

A Kansas City, MO native, Justin Carter has written for numerous sites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his writing can be found at io9 over on Gizmodo. Don't ask him about how much gum he's had, because the answer will be more than he's willing to admit.

Daily news, dev blogs, and stories from Game Developer straight to your inbox

You May Also Like