In February, Reddit revealed it had fallen victim to a targeted phishing scheme that exposed internal documents, dashboards, code and contracts, along with information from some advertisers and current and former employees. Ransomware gang BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, has just taken responsibility for the hack, claiming to have 80GB of compressed data. Now the Reddit hackers are demanding $4.5 million and reverse API price increases if the company doesn’t want its users’ data exposed.
BlackCat captured the information through a scheme where employees received “plausible-sounding prompts” to visit a website designed as Reddit’s intranet gateway. One person fell for the trick, which allowed hackers to steal their credentials and second-factor tokens. The person then reported his mistake himself. It is then assumed that the security breach did not compromise Reddit users’ personal data.
Reddit hackers are demanding $4.5 million and API pricing changes
Now, months later, the hackers have publicly revealed themselves amid site-wide protests against API price hikes. The increased cost means that popular third-party apps such as Narwhal and Apollo must be shut down. Apollo creator Christian Selig claimed he would have to spend $20 million a year to stay in business. Developers also fear that the loss of third-party apps will lead to more censorship and fewer opportunities for growing ad revenue.
A massive protest caused up to 8,000 subreddits to go dark at once. The results, however, are mixed. “These people who are angry are angry because they used to get something for free, and now it won’t be free anymore,” Reddit CEO Steve Hoffman said in an interview. He also suggested making it easier to remove moderators who don’t make “popular” decisions. While Reddit shows no signs of reversing its decision, some advertisers have paused the site as the blackouts continue.
It is currently unclear whether the company will meet the requirements. BlackCat claims Reddit ignored the past two contact attempts, in April and June. Let’s see if the public ultimatum will make a difference or not.
See also: Reddit gets TikTok-like function to separate video feed
