Poland’s Big Cheese Studio Cyberattack Leads to Nearly 8% Drop in Share Price

• The Polish game company Big Cheese Studio was the target of a cyberattack last week, which led its share price to drop nearly 8%.
• The independent video game development company based in Lodz confirmed that the important infrastructure and the game codes were unaffected.
• Hackers allegedly defaced the company's website claiming personal data of employees and a ransom demand

The Polish game development company, Big Cheese Studio confirmed being targeted by a cyberattack early on Friday. Soon after the news came out, it witnessed a share price drop by nearly 8% later that day.

Hackers allegedly managed to steal the Cooking Simulator 2 game code, and key data from its website. They defaced the website with a message claiming that both employee data and game codes were exfiltrated by them. The website remained inaccessible on the day of the incident, according to reports.

Cybercriminals behind the Big Cheese Studio ransomware attack demanded PLN 100 thousand in cryptocurrencies and threatened to release or sell the data if their demands were not met.

The company may face a penalty amounting to nearly 20 million euros, or 4% of its annual revenue for GDPR data violation regulations since the attack led to the disclosure of personal data.

The management of Big Cheese Studio stated that the situation was under control. The games, data repositories, Cooking Simulator 1 and Cooking Simulator 2, the company's social media accounts and other key infrastructure elements were unaffected. The incident impacted its Discord server and employee emails.

They said the security incident has not jeopardized its current game development projects. Although it disrupted its IT systems, the security breach has caused no data loss, according to official statements released by the company, which is known for Cooking Simulator and is set to release Underdose soon.

The management of Big Cheese Studio has assured stakeholders that it is taking all necessary measures to assess the scope of the breach. 

“Our game development work remains on track, and we are diligently working to evaluate the extent of the incident,” a representative from the company stated, cited by Reuters

To mitigate the impact of the attack and restore operations, the studio is collaborating with external service providers specializing in IT system recovery. Furthermore, Big Cheese Studio has begun pursuing appropriate legal actions related to the breach, reflecting its proactive stance on cybersecurity.

Big Cheese Studio remains committed to transparent communication as they work towards full recovery. They have assured their partners and customers of uninterrupted delivery of their key projects. More updates are expected as the investigation unfolds.

Organizations, particularly within the gaming industry, have increasingly become targets of cyberattacks due to the high value of intellectual property and user data. 

Game developers and games have been targeted by cyberattacks before, with the most recent security incident involving the users of Path of Exile 2.