Data breach at Electronic Arts sees source code for the Frostbite engine fall into the hands of hackers

Just days after the announcement of Battlefield 2042, hackers revealed that they made away with nearly 1 TB of sensitive information from Electronic Arts servers, including the source code for FIFA 21 and Battlefield's Frostbite engine. 

Electronic Arts clarified that the data breach didn't result in player information being compromised. However, this incident comes just months after CD Projekt Red was hit by a hacker attack, resulting in REDEngine and Cyberpunk 2077 assets making their way to underground auctions. 

According to Motherboard, the EA hackers are currently trying to sell the stolen data. Because Player information wasn't apparently compromised the data breach is unlikely to have an immediate impact on Battlefield or FIFA 21 players. However, as we saw with the CDPR data breach, the real risk here is when malicious actors and competitors get access to the stolen source code and assets. 

According to Upguard, the global cost of data breaches is expected to hit a remarkable US$6 trillion by the end of the year. With COVID-19 and work-from-home putting many businesses in a vulnerable security position, this might not be the last AAA developer data breach we see this year.