According to recent news report, the hacking group Dark Overlord has hacked the systems of a large law firm in the US and obtained privileged and confidential records that were published online at Pastebin. The files are allegedly encrypted and the group is seeking payment in Bitcoin, failing which they will make all the documents available.
Some documents were published in a preview on Twitter on an account since deactivated.
Dark Overlord is the group that hacked over 50 targets, including Netflix and the computer systems of a plastic surgeon in London where they obtained ‘before and after’ photos of celebrities.
Dark Overlord allegedly sent a ransom note to professional firms involved in 9/11 litigation to “pay the fuck up” in Bitcoin. They are allegedly seeking compensation from banks, law firms, insurance companies and law enforcement agencies that were involved in 9/11 settlements.
In a podcast on Motherboard, a reporter who communicated with Dark Overlord, explains that they go where other hackers won’t go, but interestingly, says that all they actually care about is the acquisition of Bitcoin. The Motherboard reporter published a voice message of a sample demand for payment from Dark Overlord in which the person asks for Bitcoin with a UK accent.
So far, the affected US law firm has not sought a Court Order to prevent the disclosure of privileged and confidential documents and surprisingly, neither have their clients apparently demanded that they do so.
In addition to being media savvy, Dark Overlord allegedly asks victims to sign releases when payments of Bitcoin are made, although such releases are not legally enforceable.
The Bitcoin address given for Bitcoin ransom payments for the law firm hack is 192ZobzfZxAkacLGmg9oY4M9y8MVTPxh7U.
Dark Overload is seeking 3.27 BTC as an initial payment.
You can have a look and see if payments have come through on the Explorer. So far, one wallet address paid $11,830.09 in Bitcoin to Dark Overlord at 1 am on January 4, 2019.