Nintendo has downplayed an employee data breach that a hacker group is threatening to release unless the company pays a $2 million ransom.<\/p>\n
At the weekend, a self-proclaimed \u201cextortion as a service group\u201d known as ShadowBytes threatened to leak private Nintendo<\/a> employee data, which it claimed included lists of e-mails, names, bank statements, and private conversations.<\/p>\n The data is said to have been sourced from an employee feedback platform known as TinyPulse, which the hacker group also threatened after Nintendo allegedly \u201cdecided not to pay\u201d it.<\/p>\n \u201cNintendo decided to not pay so we are demanding that Tinypulse pay or all data will be leaked including private messages of Nintendo employees and not all employees are happy we can tell you that,\u201d the group said. \u201cPrivate messages are about to not become private if Tinypulse doesn\u2019t reach an agreement with us.\u201d<\/p>\n \ud83d\udea8Cyber Alert \u203c\ufe0f<\/p>\n \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf5Japan – \ud835\udde1\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf1\ud835\uddfc<\/p>\n SHADOWBYT3$ claims to have breached Nintendo, allegedly stealing approximately 859 MB of data from TINYpulse systems. The claimed dataset includes employee names, email addresses, surveys, analytics reports, bank statement PDFs, W-9\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/ElrsrKesjq<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Hackmanac (@H4ckmanac) June 13, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n However, in a statement, Nintendo of America sought to downplay the alleged data breach, claiming that the data breach was limited and old.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are aware of an issue involving TinyPulse, a third-party service used for internal employee surveys at Nintendo of America,\u201d reads a statement provided to\u00a0Kotaku<\/a>\u00a0by the company.<\/p>\n \u201cNintendo\u2019s systems have not been compromised, and no personal customer or financial data has been accessed. The data involved is limited to internal survey content comprising a small subset of our employees, and most of the information dates back several years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe appreciate our employees\u2019 willingness to share their perspectives, take all feedback seriously, and take action when needed,\u201d continues the statement. \u201cWe are working with the service provider to address the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n