Hackers threaten to leak 80GB of confidential data stolen from Reddit

Hackers threaten to leak 80GB of confidential data stolen from Reddit

Hackers threaten to leak 80GB of confidential data stolen from Reddit.

The BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware gang has threatened to release some confidential data stolen from Reddit unless Reddit pays the ransom or reverses its controversial API price increases.

In February, Reddit disclosed that its systems had been hacked after an employee was targeted by a phishing attack. The phishing attack enabled threat actors to gain access to Reddit’s systems and steal internal documents, source code, employee data, and limited data about the company’s advertisers.

BlackCat claimed the attack and said it stole 80 GB of compressed data during the intrusion into the company’s systems. The team claims that they tried to contact Reddit twice, on April 13 and June 16, to request a payment of $4.5 million for the deletion of the data, but did not hear back.

“I told them in the first email that I would wait for their IPO. It seemed like a great opportunity.

But we were pretty sure Reddit wasn’t going to pay them anything for their data, and we expected a data breach. But I’d love to see it happen, the public will see all the stats they track about users, and all the interesting confidential data we get. You know they’re silently censoring users too?”

Reddit declined to comment on the threat, nor did it disclose any further details about the February attack or who was behind it. It’s unclear what type of data the hackers stole, and BlackCat has not shared any evidence of the data theft.

Reddit’s new API pricing plans have caused a lot of controversy in recent weeks.

Many subreddits such as /r/videos, /r/gaming, /r/sports, /r/aww, etc. have been shut down in protest of Reddit’s high API pricing.

Meanwhile, the popular third-party Reddit app Apollo also announced it was shutting down due to new pricing.