Ransomware gang threatens to extort DC Metro Police Department

Image credit: Christiaan Colen/Flickr

(INTELLIHUB) — A Russian-speaking cybercrime syndicate, The Babuk group, threatened on Sunday to release sensitive information that could put officers of the Metro Police Department for the District of Columbia at risk.

The criminal group used ransomware to access and hijack police computers to extort the department for money.

The extortion attempt is reportedly separate from the recent pipeline attack in which hackers seized control of a major U.S. pipeline before demanding payment.

The group issued a threat to its website on Monday demanding that police “raise the price” or “all the data” will be dumped.

“Late last month, the group said it had hacked into the network of the city’s police department and threatened to leak the identities of confidential informants unless an unspecified ransom was paid,” according to Fox 5 New York. “Experts said such a release could endanger the lives of the informants.”

It’s not known where this will all head. However, things seem to be ramping up in cyberspace.

Featured image credit: Christiaan Colen/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

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Posted By

Shepard Ambellas

Opinion journalist, analyst, political pundit, nationally syndicated radio talk show host, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Intellihub, Shepard is also known for producing and directing the hit documentary films Shade: The Motion Picture (2013) and Shackled To Silence (2020). Shepard also appears on Travel Channel's America Declassified (2013). He's a regular on Coast To Coast AM with George Noory and has appeared on Infowars in-studio with Alex Jones several times. His work appears in major national and international publications, including The Drudge Report. Shepard is the host of The Shepard Ambellas Show, nationally syndicated on iHeart Radio.