A Reddit spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Monday that BlackCat’s post relates to the February incident. The spokesperson reiterated that no user data was accessed, but declined to comment beyond that.
More than 6,000 Reddit forums went dark last Monday in what was supposed to be a two-day protest over the company’s plan to begin charging steep fees for some third party apps to access its platform. A week later,While the ransom note appears to support the protestors’ cause, some experts are skeptical of BlackCat’s actual motives.
“I suspect that ALPHV doesn’t actually care about the API pricing. They simply want future victims to see how much ongoing harm they can cause to increase the likelihood of them deciding that payment is the least painful option,” said Brett Callow, threat analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, who reviewed the post on the dark web.“We are very confident that Reddit will not pay for its data,” the group wrote in the post on the dark web. “We expect to leak the data.