Brazil Based Hackers Threaten to Leak President Cyril Ramaphosa and Julius Malema's Personal Info Online

• A Brazil-based hacking crew is threatening to leak the private information of prominent South African politicians
• The group is responsible for hacking one of TransUnion's severs and has given the credit bureau until Friday, 25 March to pay a ransom
• To prove the legitimacy of the hack, the group N4ughtySecTU has already leaked President Cyril Ramaphosa and Julius Malema's ID numbers on Telegram

JOHANNESBURG - A group of hackers responsible for hacking South Africa credit bureau TransUnion is now threatening to leak sensitive information of top SA politicians, including President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The hacker group, who call themselves N4ughtySecTU, alleges to be based in Brazil and claims to have four terabytes of data that it stole from a TransUnion server that was not properly secured.

The group has given TransUnion until Friday, 25 March to pay a hefty ransom of R225 million in bitcoin to prevent the leak of sensitive data such as bank account details of the president and Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema as well as other prominent political figures, according to MyBroadband.

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So far, N4ughtySecTU has leaked Ramaphosa and his wife, as well as Malema's ID numbers on a public group chat on Telegram.

Judges, prosecutors, police, attorneys, and advocates' personal information has also been threatened by N4ughtySecTU.

Since TransUnion has refused to pay the ransom, the group is giving the credit firm's clients the opportunity to negotiate to prevent the leak of sensitive information. Some of TransUnion's biggest clients include South African banking institutions.

Speaking to SABC News, Admire Moyo, ITWeb News Editor who has been in communication with N4ughtySecTU, says the hacking group's threats to leak Ramaphosa's personal information is merely a bid to put pressure on TransUnion to pay the ransom by Friday.

Moyo adds that the group is also trying to prove that it has sensitive information and that the hack is real. He adds that the hacking group has a lot of information about various businesses in SA but is yet to confirm if they have any information from Home Affairs.

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"What I know is that they have information of several banks, individuals like myself. They managed to send me information that they had retrieved from the TransUnion database," said Moyo.

Moyo says the banks affected have reacted and are trying to ensure that their clients' information will not be abused by the hackers.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's name among 14 heads of state whose numbers were 'leaked'

Briefly News previously reported that President Cyril Ramaphosa is among a group of 14 heads of state and government members selected as people of interest by clients of NSO Group (an Israeli spyware company). The news was revealed in a press release issued by Amnesty International.

The press release suggested that there were a number of world leaders who might have had their smartphones hacked by the NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware. The release stated that there was new evidence that was uncovered by the Pegasus Project.

Amnesty International's Sheila Mohamed called the revelation 'unprecedented' and stated that it sent a chill down the spines of world leaders.

Source: Briefly News