The FBI Refuses
A group of hackers known as REvil or Sodinokibi have released their first round of emails they claim are “damaging” to Trump’s reelection campaign, as reported by Forbes. The group successfully stole information from a New York lawfirm and are now claiming they have “dirty laundry” on Trump. After publishing documents on Lady Gaga to show their intent and credibility, REvil asked for a $42 million dollar ransom to keep the information private.
This is the first time a ransom attack has been classified as a terrorist act, according to Brett Callow. Callow is an analyst and dark web specialist at Emsisoft. Additionally, Mr. Callow mentioned that the hackers would now have to publish or sell the rest of the data. As expected, REvil decided to publish the first 169 emails that vaguely mention Trump or the word trump. It appears the key word was used to pull any data relating to that word.
In addition to classifying the hack as a terrorist act, the FBI has also refused to pay the ransom. Additionally, they’ve released a statement that no ransoms would ever be paid.
REvil’s Pushback
REvil decided to push back on the statements made by releasing “the most harmless” information. However, a warning from the group stated that there was more damaging information to come. They noted that, in an election year, this could make a difference for the reelection campaign.
The ransom note ends with a warning from the group. ” I would hurry up. In the place of your competitor, I would buy all the data and put it right at the start of the election. That would be fun. But you can get ahead of him.”
