November 13th of last year, panic ensued at the Ubisoft Montreal office after police arrived for a possible hostage situation. The threat forced employees to stay in the office and hide under their desks. The incident was resolved by police, who confirmed there was no threat in the office and evacuated the building. Many believed the Ubisoft Montreal office had been swatted, a despicable act where someone reports a fake threat to police, leading to a dangerous situation that sometimes involves breaching and SWAT members.
An investigation was launched regarding the reported hostage situation. Now, Canadian newspaper La Presse has reportedly obtained court documents that name French citizen Yanni Ouahioune as a suspect in the case. The investigation also lists several separate incidents of calls to police claiming a bomb threat, another hostage situation, and a call to Ubisoft threatening to ban Rainbow Six Siege players if not given access to a corporate account.
The connection between the Ubisoft hostage calls and Ouahioune was made because of a professional Rainbow Six Siege player. Allegedly, the suspect demanded the ban of Spoit, who was later hacked. La Presse claims that Ouahioune bragged about hacking Spoit, but now maintains that it was somebody else.
Documents obtained link Ouahioune with the hostage hoax and the hacking of the professional Rainbow Six Siege player through an internal Ubisoft investigation. Speaking with La Presse, Ouahioune admits to creating a fake Ubisoft website, which he used to steal Rainbow Six Siege accounts, which he was indicted for. He also admitted to being involved in a 2017 swatting case, but denies his involvement in the November 13th Ubisoft Montreal situation.
Yannie Ouahioune has been banned more than 80 times on Rainbow Six Siege by Ubisoft's ethics committee. The French citizen claims that his name only came up in the investigation because his name is known at Ubisoft. He also claims that the only time he called Ubisoft was to insult them for banning him. The investigation is still ongoing, with Ubisoft and Canadian police involved.
This is not the first time that Ubisoft has been targeted for an attack. Last year, the Watch Dogs: Legion source code was stolen and leaked online after the hacker's demands were supposedly not met. The entire 560 GB of source code was shared online and the hacker claimed it had been found on Ubisoft's main network. These attacks not only hurt the business, but the individuals working there. While the source code leak did not present any human danger, the Montreal office hostage call put lives in danger. Hopefully, the perpetrator is indicted.
Rainbow Six Siege is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Source:Â La Presse