Bizarre Sidelight on Trump Georgia Case
Posted: Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:25 am
First, a bit of background. About a month ago, much of the Fulton County government computer systems were hacked by a ransomware group calling themselves LockBit. Many internal files were supposedly stolen. There was a countdown clock for Fulton County to pay an undisclosed ransom. International authorities shut down the hacker's services about 10 days ago, but a new countdown timer is up from a new location, and the deadline for payment was supposed to be 8:49 am this morning. That deadline has passed and the county has said it wasn't going to pay. Now, the rest of the story, from Business Insider:
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/tech/ha ... _test=1_11
The hacking group responsible for taking down Fulton County's websites in Georgia is threatening to publish documents from the state's court system — including ones related to the criminal case against Donald Trump — unless it gets paid a ransom. In a message posted online Saturday, in both English and Russian, the hacking group called LockBit said the stolen documents "contain a lot of interesting things and Donald Trump's court cases that could affect the upcoming US election."
On a new website, the group posted a message claiming it had backup copies of documents taken from the Fulton County government's website. It also renewed its ransom demands. The post claimed that the FBI acted quickly because the leak of documents in Trump's criminal case could affect the 2024 presidential election — although court documents show that the FBI's investigation into LockBit and coordination with international law-enforcement agencies has been ongoing for years. It characterized LockBit's relationship with the FBI as a sort of romantic rivalry and promised that the group would hack more government websites in the future.
"Personally I will vote for Trump because the situation on the border with Mexico is some kind of nightmare, Biden should retire, he is a puppet," the message said.
Cyber security officials say LockBit's more overt political messages — taking a shot at Biden and expressing support for Trump — shouldn't necessarily be taken literally. "It's always difficult to discern the meaning of messages like the one published by LockBit on Saturday," he said. "Whether the declaration of support for Trump is genuine, posturing aimed at taunting what they see as 'strong competitors and the FBI,' or even an attempt to grab headlines, we don't know."
At a press conference on February 20, Robb Pitts, the Fulton County commission chair, said no ransom was paid. "We did not pay, nor did anyone pay on our behalf," Pitts said during the briefing. In Saturday's message, LockBit said its "partner" was in "negotiations" over the ransom, but they had "stalled." Pitts didn't respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. On Tuesday, county officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it would not pay a ransom. "Our focus remains on safely restoring services for our citizens and we continue to work in close coordination with law enforcement," a county spokesperson said in a statement. An FBI representative declined to comment.
Although LockBit appeared to recover from the law-enforcement takedown earlier this month, its reputation has been severely damaged, Schiappa said. Its grandstanding messages about the FBI may be a way to shore that up.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/tech/ha ... _test=1_11