A ransomware group called REvil has reportedly taken over many celebrities' personal and professional data. According to a Variety report, the breached list includes stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Ella Mai, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Cam Newton, Bette Midler, Jessica Simpson, Priyanka Chopra, Idina Menzel, HBO's "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver", and Run DMC. The group has also reportedly compromised the data of media and entertainment firm Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. The New York-based law firm has dozens of celebrity clients, and it is suspected that many of their sensitive data might have been compromised.
Huge volume of data
As much as 756 GB of data is reported to have been compromised and the attackers have published a small chunk of it on a Dark Web forum. The data leaked to scare the victims include sensitive information related to concert contract details of Madonna, Christina Aguilera's music copyrights and a non-disclosure agreement.
Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks said: "Due to a Verizon service outage in midtown Manhattan, our telephone system has been interrupted. Please contact our attorneys directly via email or mobile number."
According to the Variety report, the law firm has a large client base including music stars, actors, TV celebrities, sports stars and a few media and entertainment companies. According to a list it published earlier, they have clients like the David Bowie Estate, Drake, Elton John, AC/DC, Avicii, Sting, U2, Usher and Whitney Houston Estate.
Big gaming companies like Activision, and media companies including NBA Entertainment, Playboy enterprises, Samsung Electronics, MTV, Sony Corp, Spotify and Universal Music are also in the firm's roster.
REvil's attacks
The REvil group aka Sodinkobi has been quite active over the last few years and it had taken down numerous large enterprises' data bases. Sodinkobi grabbed the headlines after attacking big enterprises like Travelex and Brooks International. In one attack, Travelex reportedly paid as much as $2.3 million to the threat actor to gain back control of its system. Maze Ransomware operators snatched roughly $6 million last year from the cable and wire manufacturer Southwire.
