Hacktivist group Anonymous has made a public threat to social games developer/publisher Zynga.
“Operation maZYNGA” is apparently in its initial phase, Anonymous has said on its website. The group has threatened to release “the key to the data files” of confidential documents with sensitive information on Zynga execs.
The hacker group has also threatened to freely distribute games it’s stolen from Zynga’s servers.
Anonymous isn’t happy with the “outrageous treatment” of certain employees and its “actions against many developers”. There’s been a bunch of layoffs recently that have meant there are very few people still left working in Austin, also causing the cancellation of several games. Zynga recently announced plans to cut its workforce by 5% in order to saved money.
Anonymous believes the job cuts are being underestimated and much more are planned. The group also indicates it think Zynga will take legal action against “anyone that speaks to the public about this plan”. It thinks jobs are moving to India.
“With a billion dollars cash sitting in a bank we do believe that such actions are an insult to the population and the behaviour of corporations like Zynga must change” Anonymous stated. Apparently the organization won’t be releasing any content for free if Zynga stops its apparent plan to move jobs overseas.
A video from Anonymous was previously available to watch on YouTube outlining plans against Zynga but it’s since been removed due to the fact it was deemed a “violation of YouTube’s policy on depiction of harmful activities”.
The situation could be pretty dire for Zynga if true, especially seems as the company has been having a tough year as it is. Legal action concerning the alleged copying of The Sims Social is making its way to Zynga via EA, several top-level execs have left and the company’s stock prices have plummeted.
