The Russian ransomware group LockBit claimed it hacked the Federal Reserve and will release the central bank’s confidential data, although independent confirmation of the alleged attack has not surfaced.
According to combined media reports, the group made the claim on Sunday on its data leak site, insisting it would release the central bank’s data by today if its demands were not met.
“33 terabytes of juicy banking information containing Americans’ banking secrets,” said LockBit’s posting. “You better hire another negotiator within 48 hours, and fire this clinical idiot who values Americans’ bank secrecy at $50,000.”
The Federal Reserve did not publicly acknowledge the reported hack, nor has any federal law enforcement agency confirmed that a breach occurred.
LockBit has been responsible for more than 2,000 ransomware attacks since 2019, including digital assaults on the U.S. Department of Justice and Fulton County in Georgia, and earlier this year the U.S. Department of State posted a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone connected with in LockBit. Last month, the U.S., U.K. and Australian governments sanctioned and indicted Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, a Russian national accused of leading LockBit.
But despite the severity of LockBit’s actions, many cybersecurity experts are skeptical that the group was able to penetrate the Fed’s cybersecurity protections. The malware collective vx-underground posted on X (formerly Twitter), “If Lockbit ransomware group actually ransomed the United States Federal Reserve it would be DEFCON 2 and the administrators would need to worry about a drone strike. Unless Lockbit ransomware group ransomed something small in the Federal Reserve, like maybe Lockbit took down their coffee machine and they can’t watch anime or something (we don’t know what the staff at the Federal Reserve actually do)”
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