A hacker group calling itself ‘iamnotavillain’ has set a countdown timer for Revolut. The group issued a written ultimatum giving the financial app exactly 24 hours to pay a 6,000 XMR ransom. That amount is equivalent to $3 million at Monero’s market price of around $500 per coin. If the payment demand is rejected, the customer identity data in their possession will be immediately sold to other criminal groups.
A Financial Times report stated that the perpetrators published their ransom demand publicly alongside a countdown timer. To prove their claims, the hackers also provided a 60-second screen recording. The short video displays a trove of sensitive information, ranging from passports, driver’s licenses, and KYC verification photos to customer transaction history records.
Revolut responded by stating that the incident affected only a very limited portion of its total customer base. Internal records confirm that at least 680 user accounts were directly impacted, with their personal identities now in the hands of the attackers.
Not an Infrastructure Breach
The company insisted that its security infrastructure and all customer funds remain intact and uncompromised. The perpetrators did not attack servers or breach Revolut’s internal systems. Instead, the breach occurred through social engineering that exploited spoofed requests from email domains belonging to legitimate government agencies.
The attackers sent emails impersonating authorized regulatory officials requesting customer information. This social engineering trick deceived staff into handing over sensitive data, without the attackers needing to launch a technical exploit against the company’s architecture.
The choice of Monero as the ransom currency ensures the perpetrators are difficult to trace. The privacy coin is designed with specialized architecture to conceal sender information, recipient addresses, and transaction amounts from public blockchain tracking.
Time Running Out
Revolut has reported the data breach incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK. The data protection regulator responded promptly by opening a formal investigation to determine how this layered deception managed to bypass the company’s security procedures.
According to the Financial Times, as of publication time, there have been no open negotiations between the company and the extortionists. With the 24-hour deadline rapidly expiring, Revolut’s course of action regarding the fate of its 680 customers’ data remains unclear.
Source: crypto.news.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
