The London Times newspaper reported that a group of internet hackers who stole data related to US President Donald Trump from a law firm threatened that they would spread "dirty laundry" to Trump unless he fulfilled their request to pay a ransom of 42 million dollars within a week.
Last week, this group stole tremendous amounts of Trump information from Groupman Sher Mesilas & Sachs, a law firm among its clients such as singer Madonna, singer John Elton, Bruce Springsteen, rock singer, singer, Red Stewart, and rock band U2.
This infamous hacker group, called "Revell", claims to have obtained 756 GB of data, including contracts, nondisclosure agreements, phone numbers, email addresses and customer-specific communications. To demonstrate their access to these sensitive materials, the group released extracts from superstar contracts, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, and Lady Gaga.
This group was named for the malicious "Revell" data theft program, which it used to infiltrate the Travelex foreign exchange company at the beginning of the year. It is unclear where the hackers are, but they are regularly present on Russian cyber crime platforms, according to the Serbnet security research group.
The pirates doubled their demand for ransom to return the documents, from $ 21 million to $ 42 million. They also now threaten to disclose information about Trump within a week if they do not receive a full ransom from the New York law firm. "The ransom is now 42 million dollars ... The next person whose data we will be publishing is Donald Trump. There are elections going on, and we found a lot of dirty laundry on time," the hackers said in a message posted on the Internet.
The hackers addressed Trump by saying: "Mr. Trump, if you want to stay president, pay, otherwise I forget your ambition forever. And we tell you, voters, that after publishing this data, you will definitely not want to see him as president. The deadline is one week, and we will destroy Groupman If you don't send us the money. "
The relationship between Trump and Groupman is not yet clear because he has never been a customer of the company, according to sources speaking to the New York Post.
"In this case companies do not have good options available, even if they pay the ransom, there is no guarantee that criminals will destroy the stolen data, and if it has a high market value it may be sold or traded," said MC Soft analyst Brett Callow. In this case, criminals can try to extort money directly from people whose information has been revealed. "
"Our elections, our government, and our personal information are subject to escalating attacks by foreign cyber criminals. The law firms are not immune to this harmful activity," the law firm said in a statement.
"Despite our significant investment in advanced technology security, foreign cyber hackers have infiltrated our network and are demanding $ 42 million in ransom. We are working directly with federal law enforcement authorities and we continue to work around the clock with the world's leading experts to address this situation," the statement added.
The statement says that the FBI has informed the company that negotiating with or paying ransom to terrorists is a violation of the Federal Criminal Code. "Even when a massive ransom is paid, criminals often leak documents," the legal company said.