Firm won’t pay ransom to hackers with ‘dirty laundry’ on Trump
LOS ANGELES – A $42 million ransom demand for hacked files that purportedly threaten to incriminate President Donald Trump is hanging over a New York law firm representing some of the top acts in the entertainment business.
A criminal group that uses ransomware called REvil stole 756 gigabytes of data from the systems of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks and has threatened to release damaging documents involving the president if the ransom is not paid, a representative for the law firm said.
The hackers have claimed that the data include contracts, emails and nondisclosure agreements involving a number of prominent music and entertainment figures.
Trump is not a current or former client of the firm, which mostly represents well-known recording artists such as Elton John, Madonna, Lizzo, Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga.
Earlier this month, the hackers posted snippets of contracts related to some of the firm’s clients, including Madonna, as evidence that they have access to the files.
“The next person we’ll be publishing is Donald Trump,” the group said last week on its blog, according to reports. “There’s an election race going on, and we found a ton of dirty laundry on time. And to you voters, we can let you know that after such a publication, you certainly don’t want to see him as president.”
The firm, led by longtime entertainment lawyer Allen Grubman, said it is cooperating with law enforcement officials, including the FBI, to resolve the data breach. The firm said it has no intention of meeting the ransom demand.
“We have been informed by the experts and the FBI that negotiating with or paying ransom to terrorists is a violation of federal criminal law,” a representative for the firm said in a statement. “Even when enormous ransoms have been paid, the criminals often leak the documents anyway.”
The hackers initially demanded $21m. when they first revealed the data breach. They upped that amount to $42m. and shared 169 emails from the law firm’s accounts, according to a message posted on the so-called dark web on Thursday.
None contained any “dirty laundry” on Trump, according to press outlets that have viewed the emails. The ones that mentioned the president were related to other clients and dealt with such matters as rights clearances for video before he was elected. (Los Angeles Times/TNS)