Game Freak, the developer behind the Pokémon franchise, has suffered a major data breach named the “Teraleak”.
According to Hackread*, this breach has exposed hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive internal data, including concept art, development documents, and files from early Pokémon games to upcoming projects.
The leak, which surfaced on social media in October 2024, has flooded forums and communities with previously unseen content. Game Freak confirmed the hack, revealing that the personal information of 2,606 employees and contractors was compromised. The breach reportedly occurred in August 2024, but the leaked data only began circulating online in October 2024.
The leak of 1TB of data is hugely significant not just due to its size but also because it includes highly sensitive information including source code and employee details. This makes the breach far more damaging as it exposes both intellectual property and personal data which has the potential of leading to longer term security risks.
Being one of the biggest hacks in gaming history, there will be many people wanting to get their hands on this data making the aftermath that much more impactful and damaging. As the creators are behind Pokémon, one of the world’s best-known brands, this data is likely to be accessed far and wide and could even become a cult entity of its own. The clean-up operation is already 2 months behind due to only having located the breach now so it will be vital that Game Freak understand as much about the attack as possible and work with those whose data has been affected.
by Jake Moore, ESET
*ESET does not bear any responsibility for the accuracy of this information.
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