The LockBit hacker group is seeking a ransom payment of £65.7M ($79.8M) from the U.K.'s Royal Mail.
The British postal service's negotiations with Lockbit have stalled after more than three weeks of discussions.
- The Royal Mail has been scrambling to restore its international postal services since LockBit hacked the organization in January.
- The hacker group encrypted data held by the postal service and is now holding it for ransom.
- LockBit has released what it claims are the full chat logs of its negotiations with Royal Mail.
- If authentic, the logs show that LockBit demanded a payment of $80M to release the data it encrypted.
- The hacker group said the sum they demanded was the equivalent of 0.5% of Royal Mail’s annual revenue.
- Royal
Mail's negotiator called the ransom demand "absurd" and said that
LockBit had mistaken Royal Mail for its larger parent company
International Distribution Services.
- The hacker group called for a new negotiator and has threatened to release data to the public if the talks fail.
