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Hackers have now joined hands with app developers and page moderators in the ongoing protest against Reddit API pricing change. Besides asking for a $4.5 million ransom, hackers are demanding Reddit take back its new API policy.
A ransomware group named BlackCat have stolen over 80GB of data back in February from Reddit using a phishing campaign that targeted employees. Hackers are now threatening Reddit to release all this data to the public if the company fails to fulfil their demands.
Reddit has acknowledged the phishing attack on its platform and has issued an official statement:
“Reddit systems were hacked as a result of a sophisticated and highly-targeted phishing attack. They gained access to some internal documents, code, and some internal business systems.”
Reddit recently updated its API guidelines, where, third-party app developers were asked to pay a certain fee to use its API. This did not go well amongst the app developers’ community and even moderators, and they started protesting by making popular subreddits private and calling it Reddit Blackout.
According to a report from The Verge, Steve Huffman, the CEO of Reddit has stated that the platform was never designed to support third-party apps and the company won’t be making any changes to the latest policy.
