The popular online first-person shooter Rainbow Six Siege suffered a massive security breach on Saturday. Hackers reportedly took full control of the game’s administrative tools, distributing billions in in-game credits to players and issuing random bans, an act experts believe may have been a smokescreen for a larger operation.
During the breach, players were handed two billion in-game credits each, an amount equivalent to roughly $13 million in real-world value, effectively tanking the game’s internal economy and marketplace. Simultaneously, thousands of users found themselves arbitrarily banned from the platform.
According to the research group VX-Underground, the high-profile attack was likely a distraction intended to facilitate data theft from Ubisoft’s servers. It claims at least four distinct hacking collectives were involved in the coordinated effort.
Ubisoft has not officially confirmed the full extent of the data theft. The developer took the servers offline to secure manipulated user data and assured the community that players would not be penalised for spending the "gifted" credits.
As of the morning of December 29, the game remains in flux. After a brief return to service, servers are currently experiencing a second unplanned outage, according to the official Ubisoft service status page.
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