Ransomware Group Threatens to Reveal Police Informant Data in the US

The central police department of the District of Columbia has reported a cyberattack and possible data breach after screenshots of internal files from the department’s servers were posted on the Babuk Locker ransomware group’s website.

“We are aware of unauthorized access to our server. We are assessing the severity of the incident and continue to analyze the actions of the perpetrators. The FBI has been brought in to investigate,” the District of Columbia police stated.

According to Babuk Locker operators, they hacked into the law enforcement agency’s internal network and stole 250 GB of data. On their website, the attackers published screenshots of various folders stolen during the attack. Judging by the folder names, these contain numerous files related to police operations, disciplinary records, and documents concerning gang members and criminal groups.

The hackers have warned that the police have three days to contact them and pay a ransom. Otherwise, the criminals threaten to reach out to gang members mentioned in the documents and alert them about police informants.

Babuk Locker is a relatively new ransomware group. It was first detected in January 2021, but in the months since, it has already attacked several major organizations, including the Spanish mobile phone retailer Phone House and the Houston Rockets basketball team.

Last week, experts from Emsisoft warned that the group’s decryption tool contained dangerous bugs that could destroy victims’ files. A few days later, Babuk Locker’s authors announced on a hacker forum that they had fixed the issue.

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