The ransomware group known as Babuk released hacked data from the police department in Washington DC on Tuesday night after rejecting an offer of $100,000 payment from the department
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2021) The ransomware group known as Babuk released hacked data from the police department in Washington DC on Tuesday night after rejecting an offer of $100,000 payment from the department.
"You still have the ability to stop it," the Babuk group wrote in a post apparently addressing the Washington police on its website.
Along with the message, the group released seven screenshots of its ransom negotiations with the Washington police that began on April 28.
According to the screenshots of the negotiations, the Washington police department offered to pay $100,000 to the Babuk group as recent as Monday.
"Our final proposal is an offer to pay $100,000 to prevent the release of the stolen data. If this offer is not acceptable, then it seems our conversation is complete. I think we both understand the consequences of not reaching an agreement. We are OK with that outcome," the Washington police said.
But the Babuk group rejected this final offer.
"This is unacceptable from our side. Follow our web-site at midnight," the group replied.
As of Wednesday, the Babuk group has released two compressed files of data stolen from the Washington police department. The first file is a 165-Megabite file consisting of background investigation files of 22 police officers in the department, which included the officer's date of birth, social security number, full address, email address and mobile phone number.
The second file is a 23-Gigabyte file of internal data from the Washington police department.
In the early stage of negotiations with the Washington police, the Babuk group demanded a ransom payment of $4 million. The police department responded by trying to explain that the department is funded by the city of Washington DC and may have troubles to seek approval on such additional spending.
When the Washington police mentioned public reactions to the news of the department being hacked by the Babuk group and allegations that the group was being backed by Russia, the Babuk group explicitly denied such accusations.
"We completely isolated our communication with anyone, we do not need such publicity, especially since they write that we're state hackers. This is not the case. No one sponsors us. We do not cooperate with any special services. Our only interests are money," the group said.
The Babuk group stressed during negotiations with the Washington police that it did not seek media attention and was not interested in international politics.
The Washington police said earlier that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was assisting the investigation into the hacking attack from the Babuk group.
