More issues for Reddit – Reddit hacker demands API change
Along with a $4.5 million ransom. They don't work for free you know.
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The BlackCat ransomware group took responsibility for the cyberattack on Reddit in February. They want Reddit to pay them $4.5 million to stop them from sharing 80GB of stolen data from the site. They also want Reddit to undo the recent controversial API price changes. You know it’s controversial when a Reddit hacker demands API change.
If you remember the issue currently troubling Reddit, there was a protest held for the reversal of API charges to third-party apps. The CEO has since ignored the community outcry and Reddit has begun to force subreddits open by getting admins to replace mod teams if the subreddit refuses to open.
Reddit hackers demand $4.5M and a change to API pricing
The group BlackCat sent a message recently saying, “We don’t think Reddit will pay us for their data. But we’re happy that the public will see the stats they collect about users and the private info we took. We told them in our last email that we wanted $4.5 million to delete the data and keep quiet.”
A few days after the February incident, Reddit confirmed that hackers got into their internal documents, code, and business systems. They accessed info about current and former employees, contracts, and some advertisers. Reddit said user passwords and other account data weren’t compromised.
BlackCat also wants Reddit to cancel its plan to charge third-party apps for using their API. This change could cost developers a lot of money and lead to popular apps shutting down. Many subreddits have been protesting, but Reddit’s leaders seem determined to go ahead with the plan.
BlackCat started in November 2021 and had attacked over 100 organizations by July 2022, according to Security Week. They’ve been active recently, too, stealing 10 terabytes of data from Western Digital in March and threatening to release data taken from Ring, a video doorbell company owned by Amazon.
