Notorious ransomware gang claims it pulled ‘classified and top secret documents’ from U.S. intelligence agencies

Original article here

The notorious ransomware gang Blackcat, more commonly known as ALPHV, is threatening to release classified and top secret documents from numerous U.S. intelligence agencies, including the FBI, after allegedly breaching a technology company.

In a post to the dark web on Tuesday, ALPHV claimed that it had successfully pilfered 300GB of data from the Technica Corporation, a company which, according to its website, “supports the Federal Government and their mission to support, to defend and protect America’s citizens.”

“Leaks of classified and top secret documents,” the group wrote on its blog. “Documents related to the FBI and other US intelligence agencies. If Technica does not contact us soon, the data will either be sold or made public.

The blog post also included an alleged sample of the data in the form of 29 separate documents, including contracts from the Department of Defense as well as the names, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers of dozens of Technica employees.

The Daily Dot reached out to Technica to inquire about the alleged breach but did not receive a reply by press time.

Brett Callow, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said that based on the available information so far, the alleged breach could potentially be “very serious.”

“Incidents like this shouldn’t be considered in isolation,” Callow told the Daily Dot. “Exfiltrated data can be combined with information obtained in other attacks and from other sources, so breaches can be more significant than they may seem.”

Just last month, the FBI and numerous intelligence agencies from across the globe successfully brought down ALPHV’s dark web homepage. ALPHV responded shortly after by relaunching its site elsewhere on the dark web.

ALPHV is best known for its attack on multiple casinos last year that temporarily saw Las Vegas grind to a near halt. The group is also known for targeting critical infrastructure as well as medical facilities such as plastic surgery clinics.

The FBI did not respond to the Daily Dot’s questions regarding alleged agency documents obtained by ALPHV from its attack on Technica.