The group BlackCat (alternative name: ALPHV) has claimed responsibility for hacking Reddit in February 2023. The hackers announced that they got hold of confidential data on this platform, 'weighing' 80 GB, and threatened to leak it publicly if the company refused to meet their demands. The conditions were a ransom of $4.5 million and the return of the previous tariff plans for the API.
In their message, the hackers specified that they attempted to contact Reddit on April 13 and June 16, but were ignored. The silence from the company led them to the conclusion that they probably wouldn't receive the payment. This means only one thing: the risk of data leakage is extremely high.
The response from Reddit's representatives to the incident was quite restrained. The company's spokesperson, Gina Antonini, merely confirmed that the BlackCat ransom was linked to the service's hacking in February. In his comment, CTO Christopher Slowe emphasized that the hackers could only steal information concerning Reddit's employees and some documentation. There were no reliable reports about the theft of users' personal data, according to him. There was no answer to the question of what the company intends to do in the current situation; its representatives decided not to comment on their further actions.
As it turns out, hackers have damaged Reddit before. In 2018, the platform suffered a severe blow to its security system, resulting in a significant leak of confidential data. At that time, the cybercriminals managed to get all the service's private information for 2007: usernames, their account passwords, as well as messages both public and private.
The recent rise in API tariffs has upset not only BlackCat. The price increase has sparked heated disapproval discussions among users and has already led to adverse consequences. One of them is the forced closure of the popular Apollo app for reading Reddit. Additionally, thousands of subreddits, in protest, have indefinitely disconnected from the service.