iscover
Share this article on:
Powered by
MOMENTUM
MEDIA
The Rhysida ransomware gang has listed major conservative US media outlet on the dark web, claiming to have “exclusive data” for sale.
The group listed The Washington Times for auction on its blog, saying it would publish data in seven days unless the data was purchased.
“With just 7 days on the clock, seize the opportunity to bid on exclusive, unique, and impressive data. Open your wallets and be ready to buy exclusive data,” said the ransomware gang.
“We sell only to one hand, no reselling, you will be the only owner!”
The current price for the data is five bitcoins, but the group appears to be taking offers.
“Leave your mail and comment. We cannot answer if your price looks like a joke,” it said.
While Rhysida did not say what data was stolen, a sample on its leak site suggests that names, addresses, potential banking data, invoices and the license and Social Security number of at least one The Washington Times journalist was compromised.
At this stage, The Washington Times has not publicly commented on the alleged incident. Cyber Daily has reached out to The Washington Times for comment.
The Rhysida ransomware group has a history of high-profile cyber attacks, having, late last year, breached and leaked the data of Spider-Man 2 developer Insomniac games.
The group dumped 1.67 terabytes of data containing over 1.3 million files – including many that appear to belong to Insomniac’s upcoming Wolverine video game.
The gang said in its leak post that “Not sold [sic] data was uploaded, data hunters, enjoy”, and it appears some data was, in fact, sold to an enterprising bidder. Only 98 per cent of the full data set has been uploaded.
Rhysida initially made its threat to publish on 12 December after publishing limited proof-of-hack material, including passport scans, and was asking about US$2 million for the data. Any buyer, including Sony, was welcome to bid.
Just the month prior, the group listed the British Library for sale, resulting in a cyber clean-up that lasted months.
Despite the incident occurring in late November 2023, the British Library didn’t restore its main catalogue until January 2024, and it is still restoring systems now.
Be the first to hear the latest developments in the cyber industry.
