Black Shadow, the hacker group that threatened to leak the data obtained from gay dating app Atraf if a ransom of $1 million was not paid, claimed to have uploaded the entire user database after its demands were rejected.
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The Iranian-linked hacker group claimed it had managed to access data from various sites and apps serviced by Cyberserve, a web hosting company that provides other companies with servers and data storage throughout a wide range of industries.
The group had originally promised that it would not leak the private information of approximately a million people registered to the LGBT dating app if it was paid the ransom in full. They failed to mention what was going to happen to the data garnered from other companies and institutions.
After the deadline had passed, the hacker group announced their intention to follow through on the threat on Telegram, communicating in broken English.
"48 hours ended! Nobody send us money. They try to chat us, we will show you our chats. Data will be uploaded soon. But this is not the end, we have more plan," wrote the group. They then proceeded to upload screenshots of chats they purport took place between them and CyberServe, in which a counteroffer of $250,000 in bitcoin was made but seemingly rejected by the hackers.
"Do u really want to mess up with [the] Israel government, because this will end badly for u," wrote the alleged representative after signs that the group had no desire to accept their counteroffer, even after it had been raised to $350,000 in bitcoin. He also warned them of Israeli "cybercrime investigators", saying they would come after them, to no avail.
Cyberserve denied claims by Black Shadow that the screenshots represent a delegate of their company, emphasizing that they have not nor do they intend to conduct any sort of negotiations with the group.
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