Tag Archive for: investigating

Activision is investigating reports of malware stealing player data

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Call of Duty MW II Season 6 Blackcell

Activision is reportedly investigating the possibility of malware that’s been targeting players in Call of Duty in attempts to steal player data. At the moment it doesn’t seem to be confirmed where the malware comes from or how it’s infecting players’ PCs. However, there is talk that the malware was able to infect player PCs through the downloads of unauthorized software for use with Call of Duty.

In other words, players who had their data stolen may have been infected with the malware after downloading cheat software. First reported by TechCrunch, the main goals of these hackers aren’t yet clear. TechCrunch says the hackers were “trying to steal passwords for various types of accounts.” It’s also noted that it isn’t just passwords for gaming accounts that are being targeted. But also the passwords for crypto wallets.


Activision has acknowledged these claims and is actively looking into the situation. The company is also “aware of some claims that some player credentials across the broader industry could be compromised from malware from downloading or using unauthorized software.” It isn’t confirmed yet that these hacks were caused by the downloads of unauthorized third-party software.




Following reports of malware stealing player data, Activision says company servers are safe

The good news for legitimate players, it seems, is that Activision company servers are reportedly fine. A spokesperson for Activision Blizzard who spoke with TechCrunch says that the company servers “remain secure and uncompromised.” So it’s quite likely that only players downloading and using unauthorized third-party software have been impacted.

Call of Duty has had an ongoing issue with cheaters using third-party software to gain an advantage. Activision’s anti-cheat team has implemented a number of mitigations over the last couple of years to try and stop them. For instance, players caught using aim assist on PC through unauthorized software will have the game immediately shut down. Other mitigations cause enemy players to become invisible for those cheating, as well as make them invincible to damage.

While it hasn’t been confirmed that players…

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FBI, Department of Homeland Security investigating AT&T outages

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Several agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, are investigating whether the widespread AT&T outages are the result of a cyberattack or hack.

Reports of disruptions started flooding in early Thursday morning around 4 a.m., with some 30,000 AT&T customers complaining of technical difficulties, leaving them unable to place calls, text or access the internet. Within hours, the number of people suffering issues more than doubled, and by 9:30 a.m., some 74,000 people reported having network connection issues, according to downdetector.com, a website that provides real-time information about the status of online services.

AT&T, the nation’s largest service carrier, acknowledged the outages in a statement shortly thereafter, saying 75% of its network had been restored. According to downdetector.com, some 15,000 users still had issues as of 1 p.m.

So far, no reason has been given for the service problems, but the White House said multiple federal agencies have communicated with AT&T about the outages, Reuters reported. National Security spokesman John Kirby confirmed Thursday that both the FBI and the DHS are looking into the matter in addition to working with partners in the tech industry to “see what we can do from a federal perspective to lend a hand to their investigative efforts to figure out what happened here.”

Kirby added that while they “don’t have all the answers” yet, the investigative efforts are ongoing.

“I mean, this just happened earlier today. And so we’re working very hard to see if we can get to the ground truth of exactly what happened,” he said.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — an agency under the DHS umbrella, which is tasked with monitoring cyber threats — echoed Kirby’s statement in a confidential memo obtained by ABC News. It said “the cause of the outage is unknown, and there are no indications of malicious activity.”

The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating the outages.

With News Wire Services

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Huber Heights services temporarily restored, FBI investigating ransomware attack

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In Huber Heights, most of the city’s services are running on temporary platforms and independent of one another. IT techs are still working to get tax and utility billing online.

Residents can pay city bills online or pay them in person. All late fees are suspended through the end of this month.

On Sunday, November 12, 2023, the city decalred a ‘state of emergency’ after an IT tech alerted city leaders about a ransomware attack. It shut down Huber Heights’ city network.

City Manager Richard Dzik confirmed that it was an intentional attack. However, authorities are still uncertain if any residents’ personal data was stolen. The FBI is investigating the incident.

A year ago, Dzik, helped another city navigate a cyber attack when he served as the safety service director for Mount Vernon.

“It was a third party vendor. They have this tool where they can log into your computer, look at your screen and fix things,” Dzik explained. “The hackers accessed that tool and used it to put the ransomware on.  It took about a month to get back to normal and two months to figure out what happened.”

This week, IT techs will install the latest anti-virus software on the servers. Then they’ll wipe clean all city computers and devices to bring Huber Heights’ network back online.

Meanwhile, city employees are keeping things running on new laptops with Verizon cellular hotspots.

“It’s not the way we prefer to do [business]. In two weeks we should be back on our normal operational schedule.” Dzik also says neighboring cities are offering their IT staff to help.

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Boeing investigating ransomware threat

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