Lady Gaga’s confidential data leaked by hackers as law firm refuses to pay doubled ransom of $42M
European hacker group ‘REvil’, who have allegedly got their hands on some of the top celebrities’ private information from New York-based entertainment law firm Grubman Dhire Meiselas & Sacks have now doubled their ransom to $42 million after leaking confidential information about Lady Gaga’s legal work with the firm.
According to Rolling Stone, REvil, who had initially demanded $21 million in exchange for 756 GB of stolen are now demanding twice the amount after releasing 2.4 GB of files, including confidential information about Gaga’s contracts with producers, expense sheets, performance agreements, photos, reimbursement forms for the artist Jeff Koons and other documents pertaining to legal work. However, the singer’s legal representatives have refused to comment on the cyberattack on the ‘Poker Face’ singer.
After releasing the data, the hacker group released a statement, saying, “It seems that GRUBMANS doesn’t care about their clients or it was a mistake to hire a recovery company to help in the negotiations. As we promised, we [published] the first part of the data because the time is up.”
Meanwhile, in a statement refusing to pay the hackers the demanded ransom in exchange for Lady Gaga’s private data, Grubman said, “Our elections, our government and our personal information are under escalating attacks by foreign cybercriminals. Law firms are not immune from this malicious activity. Despite our substantial investment in state-of-the-art technology security, foreign cyberterrorists have hacked into our network and are demanding $42 million as ransom. We are working directly with federal law enforcement and continue to work around the clock with the world’s leading experts to address this situation.”
“We have been informed by the experts and the FBI that negotiating with or paying ransom to terrorists is a violation of federal criminal law. Even when enormous ransoms have been paid, the criminals often leak the documents anyway,” it further read.
The hackers have also claimed to have obtained folders consisting of highly confidential information related to other singers and musicians including Lizzo, Barbara Streisand, Better Midler, Madonna and Mariah Carey.
According to sources Grubman has “sensitive details on everything - work contracts, confidential settlements and endorsement deals for the biggest stars in New York and Hollywood,” reports the Daily Mail.