Hacker Group Demands $42M Ransome For Not Exposing Trump’s Secrets

Cryptocurrencies being a nascent industry is highly targeted by hackers and scammers. One of the most common forms of attacks is ransomware. It is exactly what it sounds like. Essentially, hackers take control over a system, be it computer or servers, and ask crypto to give the control back. Many such attacks have been happening throughout the world in the last few years. But this time it has happened to a law firm and even Donald Trump might be affected.

Also read: Avoid Bitcoin Scams

Most of the time, it is because of users’ negligence that these attacks are made possible. If everyone follows strict security protocols, either for business or personal safety, they wouldn’t fall prey to such ransomware. This particular group of hackers is known as REvil. And from the looks of it, they mean business.

Theft of Legal Secrets

Legal firms, by the very nature of their business, have lots of legal secrets. The firms that service premium clients like celebrities, entertainers, politicians have even more juicy secrets. This kind of information is not valuable to regular users at all. But in the black markets, it holds a very high value. And that is why hackers target them.

REvil, in this case, hacked and encrypted the server of New York law firm, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. The firm has clients such as Elton John, Robert DeNiro, and Madonna. They managed to steal almost 1 TB (Terrabyte) of confidential legal information on various celebrities. The info includes contracts, telephone numbers, email addresses, non-disclosure agreements, personal correspondence, etc.

To show that they mean business, they have already released about 2 GB (Gigabyte) of legal documents on Lady Gaga. It is still not known who else they have information on and what they intend to do with it.

Donald Trump’s Dirty Laundry

The law firm refused to negotiate with REvil although they have threatened to destroy the firm. The FBI is considering this an act of terrorism. And as per US policies, they don’t negotiate with terrorists. This is especially important now that they have started targeting the US president.

REvil posted a new message on May 14 stating, “The next person we’ll be publishing is Donald Trump. There’s an election going on, and we found a ton of dirty laundry on time.” They are now demanding $42 million in cryptocurrency or else they will expose the US president. They want to be paid in privacy-oriented crypto called Monero. Although they would settle for Bitcoin as well.

Also, they want him to “poke a sharp stick at the law firm”. It is not yet clear what connection Trump has with the law firm. He is not believed to be or have ever been their client. As things stand now, the hacker group plans to release all their information in nine stages. This is unless their demands are met by the law firm.