Cyber extortion has grown inordinately over the most recent year. Just a few days ago it was revealed that Allen Grubman, a legal representative for celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Madonna, Mariah Carey, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Priyanka Chopra and Bette Midler, was the victim of a cyberattack. Hackers demand a payment of more than $20 million from your firm.
Now, it was revealed that hackers have increased the ransom to $42 million USD, and have threatened to reveal President Donald Trump’s secrets if his demands are not met.
REvil, the responsible hacker group, entered the legal firm’s server and extracted more than 700 GB of sensitive information, including contracts and personal messages from a large number of celebrities. Threat actors also encrypted the company’s backups, so the only apparent solution is to pay the ransom demanded by hackers.
An anonymous informant claims that the legal firm refuses to negotiate with the hackers: “They believe that, if they pay, cybercriminals could breach their part of the deal and expose the compromised information anyway.” In this regard, agencies such as the FBI recommend not paying the required money, as this is considered an act of terrorism. By security policy, the U.S. doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.
The decision to increase the ransom figure appears to be a response to the company’s refusal to negotiate a payment. “The ransom doubled to 42 million; The next victim will be Donald Trump. Soon there will be elections and we find many secrets in time.” In addition, the hackers said, “Mr. Trump, if you want to remain president, pay the ransom. We assure you that voters will not want to see him as president if this information is disclosed.”
No one seems to know why hackers are trying to contact Trump via Grubman, as the U.S. president has never been a client of this legal firm.
REvil has not stopped its operations even though it has not received a payment for this attack. On Thursday, it was revealed that criminals hacked a major U.S.-based company, and also posted multiple files on a dark website.
Emsisoft specialist Brett Callow says: “Companies in this situation don’t have many options available; Even if they pay the ransom, there is no guarantee that criminals will destroy the stolen data if they have a high market value. Data can still be sold or exchanged on hacking forums, so the victims of these attacks are in a dead-end maze.”
He is a cyber security and malware researcher. He studied Computer Science and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2006. He is actively working as an cyber security investigator. He also worked for different security companies. His everyday job includes researching about new cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in enterprise security implementation.