Underground hacker forum gets hacked; hackers demand $50,000 in ransom

In a bizarre incident, a hacker broke into a hacker forum and demanded $50,000 in ransom, threatening that in case the forum failed to deliver the money, he would share the stolen database with the US authorities. [caption id=“attachment_3928273” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representation image. Reuters.[/caption] The victim, Basetools.ws, is an underground hacking forum that allows users to trade stolen credit card information, profile data and spamming tools. According to US-based tech website bleepingcomputer.com, the forum boasts to have more than 150,000 users and over 20,000 tools listed in its forums. The **hacker** breached the site and uploaded samples of its database online, along with the ransom demand. The attacker said if the victim fails to deliver the ransom, he would share the data on the site’s administrator with the US authorities such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Treasury (DoT). “To prove the validity of his claims, the hacker shared an image of the Basetools admin panel and an image containing the site admin’s login details and IP address,” the report said. In addition, the hacker also dumped tools that Basetools users were selling on the site. According to other text included in the ransom demand, the hacker also appeared to have carried out the hack out of revenge, claiming the site’s operator has been manipulating stats.