A hacker group is threatening to leak confidential information it stole from Reddit if the social-media company doesn’t pay a $4.5 million ransom and abandon plans to start charging fees to some third-party developers.
The group, known as BlackCat, stole the data in February and initially demanded just the ransom fee. Lacking a response from Reddit, the group on Friday added it also wants the company to abide by the demands of the scores of Reddit communities that protested the developer fees last week.
Reddit confirmed the February hack around the time it occurred and said the group accessed some business information but no user data. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Reddit declined to comment on either of the group’s demands.
BlackCat, also known as Alphv, has been around since late 2021, according to Tamer Hassan, chief executive of cybersecurity firm Human Security. He reviewed the group’s posts and confirmed its demands of Reddit.
Honestly, I’m so happy every time I see big-name news outlets reporting on the reddit shit-show. Every article is another stone hung around Huffman’s neck. There’s no way he survives as CEO with all the negative attention on him. I hope it ruins his C-Suite career and sends him back to flipping burgers.