Hackers Threaten to Leak Reddit Data if Company Doesn’t Provide $4.5 Million Payout

Last week, thousands of subreddits chose to go dark in an effort to protest the company’s plan to start charging certain third-party developers to access the site’s data. The result of the protest is many forums displaying “private” or “restricted” messages.

Despite the efforts, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is not changing his mind. He told the Associated Press, “Protest and dissent is important. The problem with this one is it’s not going to change anything because we made a business decision that we’re not negotiating on.”

However, now, hackers from the BlackCat ransomware gang or ALPHV are threatening to leak 80 gigabytes of confidential data from Reddit that was obtained during a data breach in February.

The hackers made a post on the dark web, which was reviewed by CNN and an independent cybersecurity expert. Originally, the group demanded $4.5 million “for the deletion of the data and our silence” but after no response, the group has added an additional demand. Along with the payout, the hackers are demanding that Reddit withdraw the controversial new pricing policy.

The hackers, according to their post on the dark web, do not expect Reddit to pay for its data.