A hacker group calling themselves BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, claims responsibility for the February cyberattack on Reddit.
The group now threatens to leak 80GB of data they allegedly obtained unless Reddit withdraws the price increase that third-party developers are now required to pay to use Reddit’s API.
As we know, Reddit’s API price hike has already led to the shutdown of several major subreddits in protest against the increases. However, it should be noted that BlackCat also demands $4.5 million to refrain from leaking the stolen data. The group likely sees Reddit’s “API debacle” primarily as a means to gain attention and possibly extort money from Reddit.
Nevertheless, BlackCat does not believe that Reddit will pay the ransom they demand to prevent the data from being leaked. They claim to have contacted Reddit twice before regarding their ransom demands but received no response. In a post, they state that the data stolen from Reddit will likely be leaked sooner or later:
We are very confident that Reddit will not pay any money for their data. We expect to leak the data.
