The popular multiplayer online role-playing videogame, “Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore,” has experienced a devastating ransomware attack that resulted in the deletion of every player’s account and the loss of all characters. The game’s official Discord channel announced the attack, revealing that the ransomware had encrypted data on its systems and local backup, and demanded a cryptocurrency ransom for a decryption key. However, the developers, GellyBerry Studios, decided not to pay the ransom due to doubts about receiving the decryption key. Instead, they chose to rebuild their servers and create new databases.
Fortunately, no customer data was compromised during the attack. However, it is crucial to determine how the ransomware attackers were able to breach the system and implement measures to prevent future attacks. The developers have urged affected players to contact them via email or direct message to request account recovery. As an apology for the incident, all affected players will be given a “Corrupted Wolf” pet.
The developers expressed their sincere apologies for the loss of accounts and characters and assured players that they are actively taking steps to prevent similar incidents in the future. These measures include increasing the frequency of backups, decentralizing offline backups, implementing a VPN for remote connections to the game’s development server, and creating a list of approved IP addresses for server access.
On November 24th, the game’s Discord channel announced that the servers were back up and running. Players will be prompted to create new accounts upon launching the game, and the developers aim to begin restoring accounts and characters soon.
Key Points:
1. “Ethyrial: Echoes of Yore” suffered a ransomware attack, resulting in the deletion of all player accounts and characters.
2. The ransomware encrypted data on the game’s systems and local backup, demanding a cryptocurrency ransom for a decryption key.
3. The developers opted not to pay the ransom and instead rebuilt the servers and created new databases.
4. No customer data was compromised, but measures must be taken to prevent future attacks.
5. Players can contact the game’s developers for account recovery and will receive a “Corrupted Wolf” pet as an apology.
6. The developers apologize for the incident and are implementing measures such as increased backups, decentralized offline backups, VPN usage, and approved IP addresses.
7. The game’s servers are back up, and players will need to create new accounts before account and character restoration begins.