Reddit Hackers Demand $4.5 Million Ransom, Prompting API Pricing Modifications

A ransomware group has claimed responsibility for hacking Reddit earlier this year and is now demanding not only money but also changes in policies.

The ransomware group known as BlackCat has admitted to conducting the phishing attack on Reddit in February, as reported by Bleeping Computer. In a post shared by researcher Dominic Alvieri, BlackCat claims to have obtained and is threatening to publicly release 80GB of data from Reddit unless their demands are met. The group is requesting a payout of $4.5 million in exchange for the data and is also demanding a reversal of Reddit’s planned API pricing changes, which had led to user and moderator protests last week.

During the hack, Reddit confirmed that hackers had employed a sophisticated and targeted phishing attack to gain access to internal documents and data, including contact information for employees and advertisers. The company assured that user data not already public had not been accessed by the hackers.

Reddit chose not to comment on this hack. According to Bleeping Computer, the BlackCat hack and the incident disclosed by Reddit in February are one and the same.

BlackCat’s new demands regarding API pricing changes come after a heated exchange between Reddit’s leadership and some of its most active users. Following Reddit’s announcement that it would start charging developers of third-party apps, potentially involving millions of dollars annually, many top subreddits went offline as a form of protest, limiting new posts and public access. In an interview with The Verge, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman stated that the platform was never intended to support third-party apps and that the proposed changes would not be reversed.