Kiwi Farms says someone hacked its website

Kiwi Farms, a forum that’s long been accused of fostering targeted online and real-world harassment campaigns, says that someone hacked its proxy service and website. As noted by cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont, it told users in a Telegram message that all avatars had been changed to the logo of another website (said to be another purported “free speech” forum) and that “each node on the forum index was deleted one at a time.”

While Kiwi Farms apparently has backups and none of the forum data has been permanently deleted, users’ personal information may have been compromised. Founder Joshua Moon told users to assume that their email and password information has been obtained, as well as the IP address of any device they’ve used to access Kiwi Farms in the last month.

“I do not know for sure if any user information was leaked. In my access logs, they attempted to download all user records at once,” Moon wrote in a statement on the Kiwi Farms website. “This caused an error and no output was returned. I shut everything off soon after. If they scraped information through some other mechanism, I cannot say with any confidence either way.”

The hacker is said to have used an injected script to gather data from users’ systems. Moon said they accessed his admin account as a result of this method. Moon added that he would restore the site from a backup, but noted that the process (as well as reviewing Kiwi Farms’ security procedures) would take some time. However, he noted on Telegram today that he had to leave for a week to deal with a family emergency. Some Kiwi Farms users are turning on Moon over the incident.

Earlier this month, Kiwi Farms was effectively forced off of the open web following an effort to take down the forum. Streamer and political commentator Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti, a prominent target of a harassment campaign that allegedly stemmed from the website, started the movement to bring down Kiwi Farms. While Moon was later able to bring the forum back online through other means.

Cloudflare, a DDoS protection company, kicked Kiwi Farms off its service due to a significant increase in targeted threats originating on the site. That seems to have played a role in this weekend’s hack. “Cloudflare not only provided DDoS protection, they also accounted for many popular exploits like this,” Moon wrote. 

Massive ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ leak shows off early gameplay footage

A massive trove of footage from the next installment in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series has leaked online. On early Sunday morning, a hacker who goes by teapotuberhacker uploaded 90 videos from a test build of Grand Theft Auto VI to GTAForums. Since PCGamer spotted the post, the clips have proliferated across YouTube and social media, and as of the writing of this article, they’re still viewable.

In line with reporting Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier published in July, the footage shows two playable protagonists. One of them is a female character named Lucia, who we see robbing a restaurant in one of the clips. In a separate video, you can see the other playable character riding the “Vice City Metro,” pointing to the fact that GTA VI will take place in a fictionalized version of Miami. According to Schreier, the leaked footage is legitimate.

“Not that there was much doubt, but I’ve confirmed with Rockstar sources that this weekend’s massive Grand Theft Auto VI leak is indeed real. The footage is early and unfinished, of course,” he tweeted. “This is one of the biggest leaks in video game history and a nightmare for Rockstar Games.”

Adding intrigue to an already interesting story, teapotuberhacker claims they’re also responsible for the recent Uber hack. They said they obtained the test build after gaining access to a Rockstar employee’s Slack account and may upload additional data online, including source code and assets from GTA V and GTA VI, as well as the test build itself. It’s unclear how old this version of the game is. Rockstar has reportedly been working on GTA VI since 2014. In July, Schreier reported the studio was at least another two years away from releasing the game to the public.

Grand Theft Auto series publisher Take-Two Interactive did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment.

Update, 9/19/2022, 9:18am ET: Rockstar Games confirmed the leak Monday morning in a tweet:

Amazon greenlights ‘Blade Runner 2099’ sequel series

The long-teased Blade Runner sequel series is real. Variety has confirmed Amazon has ordered production of Blade Runner 2099 for Prime Video. Original movie director Ridley Scott will serve as an executive producer alongside Silka Luisa (Halo and Shining Girls), who will also be the showrunner. The premise of 2099 isn’t yet clear beyond its setting 50 years after Blade Runner 2049, but Amazon’s global TV head Vernon Sanders claimed the follow-up would preserve the “intellect, themes, and spirit” of the movies.

The cast hasn’t been set at this stage, although it’s doubtful you’ll see familiar names given events in past movies and the timeline of the show. Amazon also hasn’t said when it expects to release the series.

The project could still be one of Amazon’s more ambitious shows to date. The company has been ramping up the production values of Prime Video productions in recent years, and that appears to have paid off — the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power reportedly cost $465 million to make, and set a Prime viewing record upon its debut. It wouldn’t be surprising if Amazon committed to a major investment (if not necessarily as large) for a recognizable franchise like Blade Runner, particularly with Scott involved.

EA will debut new anti-cheat tech with ‘FIFA 23’ on PC

Electronic Arts is determined to keep cheaters at bay. The company has developed a kernel-level anti-cheat system for PC that it will deploy alongside FIFA 23 when the game arrives on September 30th. According to the publisher, the move was necessary to “ensure fair play” by taking on PC cheat developers who are increasingly building kernel-level exploits that OS-level anti-cheat tools are unable to detect.

In a blog post, EA’s senior director of game security and anti-cheat Elise Murphy wrote that the company created EA AntiCheat (EAAC) because “third-party anti-cheat solutions are often opaque to our teams, and prevent us from implementing additional privacy controls or customizations that provide greater accuracy and granularity for EA-specific game modes.” It should also be able to address security issues head on.

EAAC won’t be used in all EA games, though the publisher says it’s necessary for competitive titles with an online focus, such as FIFA 23. This year’s edition includes cross-play support and, in theory, EAAC should prevent console players from having to deal with PC cheaters. The company may take different anti-cheat approaches in games without leaderboards or a competitive system. As such, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see EA add EAAC to the likes of Apex Legends, but it seems unlikely to be patched in to the 2021 Game of the Year (don’t take my word for it) It Takes Two.

The tool will only be active when a game with EAAC is running on your PC. It will be uninstalled when you remove all EA games that require it (you can uninstall EAAC manually, but the likes of FIFA 23 won’t be playable). Murphy wrote that “EAAC will have negligible impact on your gameplay,” so it shouldn’t diminish performance.

As far as system privacy and security goes, Murphy says that EAAC will only examine the files it needs to for anti-cheat reasons. EAAC will hash the information that it does collect and jettison the original data. The tool won’t collect data from your browsing history, apps that don’t interact with EA games or anything else that’s irrelevant to its purposes, according to the blog post.

EA isn’t the first publisher to adopt a kernel-level anti-cheat approach. Riot and Activision use similar tools in Valorant, Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone.

Watch nearly 8 minutes of ‘Bayonetta 3’ gameplay in a new trailer

Bayonetta 3 is primed to be a stylish, neon-splattered action title, and Nintendo has the gameplay trailer to prove it. Today the studio dropped nearly eight minutes of Bayonetta 3 gameplay footage on YouTube, showcasing Bayonetta’s Witch Time, Demon Masquerade and summoning abilities, and how other characters will play. 

The game pits Bayonetta and her cohorts — a witch-in-training called Viola, the Umbra Witch Jeanne and a journalist named Luka — against an army of man-made bioweapons called Homonculi. Each character brings their own flair to the fight; Viola, for instance, can call upon a giant, maniacal Cheshire cat to help her take down massive monsters.

The Demon Masquerade feature allows Bayonetta to channel the abilities of various animals, including a moth, spider and scorpion. There’s also a new accessory called Immortal Marionette that adds a one-button input mechanic for combos and defense moves to any difficulty setting in the game. 

Bayonetta 3 is set to hit Switch on October 28th.

‘Fire Emblem Engage’ is coming to Switch on January 20th

Today’s Nintendo Direct kicked off with a bang, with the reveal of a new, mainline Fire Emblem game. You won’t have to wait too long to get your hands on Fire Emblem Engage either. It’s coming to Nintendo Switch on January 20th. 

A thousand years after four kingdoms and heroes from further afield worked together to imprison a Fell Dragon, this so-called great evil is poised to re-emerge. Your task is to collect Emblem Rings that are scattered across the world in order to bring peace to the Continent of Elyos.

Along with the announcement, Nintendo offered a first look at gameplay. Fire Emblem Engage appears to have grid-based, real-time strategy elements, along with turn-based battles and open-world exploration. The game will feature a new cast of customizable characters, though you’ll be able to summon heroes such as Marth (who’s making his return to the Fire Emblem series) and Celica in your quest. 

You can pre-order Fire Emblem Engage now from the Nintendo eShop. A physical Divine Edition with a steelbook and art case will be available too.