Cyberhackers have doubled their ransom demand to $42 million to unlock celebrity files on a law firm’s compromised servers.
The hackers also threatened to reveal “dirty laundry” on President Trump if their demands are not met by next week, Page Six reported.
Hackers illegally accessed the computer systems of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, a law firm based in New York City that represents a long list of high-powered VIPs, corporations, A- and B-list celebrities and pro athletes.
An unsuspecting employee may have clicked a phishing link, giving the hackers access to the company servers.
The hackers then downloaded over 756 GIGs of data including contracts and personal e-mails, according to Page Six.
The hackers demanded $21 million to unencrypt the data. That ransom has now doubled to $42 million.
When the law firm’s founder, prestigious celebrity attorney Alan Grubman, refused to pay the ransom, the hackers claimed they would publish President Trump’s dirty laundry.
“The ransom is now [doubled to] $42,000,000 … The next person we’ll be publishing is Donald Trump. There’s an election going on, and we found a ton of dirty laundry on time.
“Mr. Trump, if you want to stay president, poke a sharp stick at the guys, otherwise you may forget this ambition forever. And to you voters, we can let you know that after such a publication, you certainly don’t want to see him as president … The deadline is one week.
“Grubman, we will destroy your company down to the ground if we don’t see the money.”
The long list of clients include Drake, LeBron James, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Barbra Streisand, Nicki Minaj, Mike Tyson, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Spike Lee, Lil Nas X, and many more.
The law firm also represents corporations, including MTV, HBO, EMI Music, Playboy Enterprises, Spotify, and more.
The police are powerless to help the law firm because the hackers are based in Russia or some other far flung communist country that doesn’t cooperate with U.S. law enforcement.
The police usually advise hospitals, municipalities, and corporations that are hacked to pay the ransom or lose all their files.
Some companies back up their hard drives and databases on the Cloud or at offsite digital storage facilities that can’t be accessed by hackers. But the hacking group deleted the law firm’s backup files.
