Another slap in the face of Reddit: hackers threaten to leak confidential stolen data

Rainy, wet. hacker group Black cat made a sharp threat Reddit: Will release 80 GB of stolen sensitive company data unless it pays a ransom and cancels a controversial implementation of its payment API.

It is still unknown what secret information the hackers have. tech cruch collects what the cybercriminals claim to have collected it during the attack on Reddit in February. However, to date, they have not provided evidence to confirm that the material is in their possession.

It is worth noting that the Reddit hack was real and even recognized by the company led by Steve Huffman. Then from the podium they commented that one of their employees was a victim of the campaign phishing. This resulted in their business systems being compromised, allowing the hackers to gain access to internal documentation, including contact information for their employees, and to the site’s code. However, it was ensured that user account data was not affected.

The BlackCat group claims to have contacted Reddit twice but received no response to their claims. According to the hackers, the last time it happened was last Friday, June 16th. In their message to the company, they would promise to delete all stolen data only if the new API is disabled and a $4.5 million ransom is paid..

Reddit is dominated by a group of hackers

The BlackCat threats come at one of the worst times in Reddit history. The platform is experiencing very strong rejection from the side payment API implementation for third-party clients. It was heavily criticized not only for its price, but also for the developers’ short notice of its entry into force. This led, for example, to the closure of Apollo, one of the best and most popular Reddit clients for the iPhone.

As if that wasn’t enough, Huffman’s statements in a recent AMA trying to clear things up only angered the moderators of the most popular subreddits. To the point that a large number of communities decided to hold a “blackout” in protest against the company’s measures.

Since the leadership of Reddit, they have tried to lower the foam to a boycott of its users. “It’s very noisy. Some of the loudest we’ve ever seen. […] And like all explosions on Reddit, this one too will pass.”Huffman said in a message sent to his staff.

In fact, it became known that the platform was trying to convince lower level moderators of certain subreddits to report to their superiors. Thus, he would seek to break the blackouts and achieve the reopening of some communities that have become private.

discovery and trolling

In response, three of Reddit’s most important communities – r/pics, r/aww, and r/gifs – have reopened over the past few hours. However, they only allow material about the British comedian to be published. John Olivershow host Last week tonight from HBO and HBO Max. Explicit trolling against Reddit managers, which Oliver himself is responsible for supporting on his social networks.

Regarding the BlackCat attack, Reddit chose not to comment. From the hacker group, they said that their original intention was to wait for the company to go public, but that plans have changed due to the events of recent weeks. “We are very confident that Reddit will not pay for your data. We hope to leak information”pointed out by cybercriminals.