The cyber-extortion spree of The Dark Overlord gang is spreading, leaving a major television studio and a trail of U.S. medical and dental clinics damaged for their refusal to meet ransom demands, McClatchy Newspapers reports. “We’ll admit that business is quite nice, and it’s only improving,” a spokesperson for the group told McClatchy in an encrypted chat. Last week, the group released eight unaired episodes of ABC’s “Steve Harvey’s FUNDERDOME” show and spilled 12,000 patient records from two Southern California medical and dental clinics. A Virginia clinic is now in its sights.
In a chat with McClatchy through an encrypted channel, the group’s spokesperson displayed the swagger that has been a hallmark of the gang’s public interactions, and sought to portray the group as having legitimate business aspirations. Asked about the number of victims of its extortion demands, the spokesperson wrote back: “Victims? You mean clients, right?” The spokesperson brushed off questions about smaller businesses and clinics, including a nonprofit cancer center in Indiana, that have faced hardship because of its hacks. “We’re here to earn vast amounts of internet money, not feel for our clients,” the person wrote, warning at anyone breached by the group should accede to ransom demands rather than face disclosure of confidential records. The gang said its goal is to strike a new target daily.