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Besides an overwhelming majority of legitimate uses, cryptocurrencies are also suitable of being preferred as a mean of exchange in certain illegal transactions where privacy is key. Such is the case of Gnosticplayers, who is back in the headlines of tech media after publishing today the third round of data coming from hacked companies.
The latest pack comprises about 26 million stolen user records, coming from 6 different companies. The complete package has a price of about 1.24 bitcoin, or about $5,000 at writing time. According to ZDnet, the hacker has uploaded over 840 million user records in the past month alone, after two similar rounds in the past.
The six companies affected in today's batch are GameSalad. Estante Virtual, Coubic, Lifebear, Bukalapak and YouthManual. They range from game developers to book stores, with a prevalence of Indonesian companies.
The identity of the hacker remains unkown in so far. However, last month Gnosticplayers shared some insights about his modus operandi with the above mentioned online publication. Interestingly, he claims that not all the data he managed to steal has been put up for sale on the dark web, as certain firms decided to give in to his ransom requests:
“I came to an agreement with some companies, but the concerned startups won't see their data for sale […] I did it that's why I can't publish the rest of my databases or even name them."
Read more: Cyberattack takes down Boston's legal system, criminals want Bitcoin; 'Sextortion' blackmail makes scammers as much as $300k in BTC