Riot Games suffers social engineering attack, promises most balance changes on time cover image

Riot Games suffers social engineering attack, promises most balance changes on time

Riot Games face a social engineering attack as the latest League of Legends issue to hit the company. Here’s what went down.

After myriad issues with the season start cinematic and community feedback that the game had felt lackluster, League of Legends find themselves with another issue. This time in the form of a social engineering attack affecting the current patch. Riot made the announcement about the attacks on social media late Friday. Despite the attack which appears to have weakened the team's ability to update, Riot still promises a majority of the planned changes on time.

Riot attack and hack: What happened?

While it is not entirely clear what has happened as part of the attack; Riot stressed that while they do not have all the details yet – and will release them once they can. Typically a social engineering hack can mean anything from a Riot login getting accessed to a phishing scam hitting one of the internal dev teams. Riot is mum on what actually took place.

No player data or personal information was taken as part of the attack--passwords, email addresses, bank details, etc.. But due to the attack, there may be issues with content being pushed out and may delay the next patch update while the systems are recovered. This may also mean some changes that were scheduled for the next patch may be pushed back.

What does this mean for my gaming?

As no data was successfully stolen, you are free to continue playing League as much or as little as you like. There may be a delay to patch 13.2, which was scheduled to be released Jan. 25. But the LoL Twitter stated that they will be doing their best to ensure the changes can come out on time, and that the patch can continue, to limit disruption for players.

Ahri Arcana Skin - Image via League of Legends Website
Ahri Arcana Skin - Image via League of Legends Website

The League team did make fans aware that changes to Ahri may have to be pushed back; and scheduled into the 13.3 patch instead of 13.2. Meaning the changes would take effect in 13.3 which is scheduled to be released Feb. 8. So, Ahri mains may have to wait a little longer.

Another issue for Riot

Unfortunately for Riot, this attack was not well timed in the slightest. As it follows numerous statements on the start of 2023 content. Riot have been taking it all in their stride; and are promising to ensure they get to the bottom of what happened on this occasion.

Though it is possible that the attack will affect other games not only League of Legends. This could mean Valorant and TFT are also affected; and may also have their patch updates delayed or changed due to the attack.

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