A hacking collective has asserted that it possesses documents pertaining to the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and has issued a threat to disclose them. Initially, the group had set a deadline of Saturday to receive a ransom payment, as reported by Business Insider. However, on Saturday, the group revised its demand, stating that the payment must be made by Thursday at 8:49 a.m. Eastern time.
As of Thursday morning, no documents have been released, and there is no public information regarding any payment of ransom. The exact amount of money demanded by the group remains undisclosed. Notably, the group claims to have secured the stolen files beyond the reach of law enforcement.
The leader of the group, operating under the pseudonym LockBitSupp, was the target of a raid conducted by the FBI and Britain’s National Crime Agency on February 20. On that day, authorities reported the takedown of 34 servers. Simultaneously, the Department of Justice indicted two Russian individuals allegedly involved in hacking activities. The indictment alleges that these suspects have been engaged in over 2,000 cases of ransomware payments, amounting to more than $120 million since 2000.
“For years, LockBit associates have deployed these kinds of attacks again and again across the United States and around the world. Today, U.S. and U.K. law enforcement are taking away the keys to their criminal operation,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news release.
“And we are going a step further — we have also obtained keys from the seized LockBit infrastructure to help victims decrypt their captured systems and regain access to their data. LockBit is not the first ransomware variant the Justice Department and its international partners have dismantled. It will not be the last,” Garland said in the release.
The organization stated in a press release that it was singled out due to its knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Trump in Georgia.
“The FBI decided to hack now for one reason only, because they didn’t want to leak information from https://fultoncountyga.gov/ the stolen documents contain a lot of interesting things and Donald Trump’s court cases that could affect the upcoming US election,” the statement said.
“Personally I will vote for Trump because the situation on the border with Mexico is some kind of nightmare, Biden should retire, he is a puppet,” the statement said.
“If it wasn’t for the FBI attack, the documents would have been released the same day, because the negotiations stalled,” the statement said.
“I need to attack the .gov sector more often and more, it is after such attacks that the FBI will be forced to show me weaknesses and vulnerabilities and make me stronger,” the statement said.
