The Kaunas Lithuania-based Grozio Chirurgija clinics were recently hacked by a group called Tsar Team who leaked thousands of private photos of plastic surgery patients including naked photos of celebrities.
What did the photos include? According to authorities, around 25,000 photos were leaked that included personal information. Also, the leak included 1,500 naked photos of Brits. Essentially, the photos were shown as including the ‘before and after’ effects of plastic surgery.
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A blurred list shows some of the patients among thousands along with the ransom demanded by hackers.
One of the photos leaked by hackers
Demand for ransom: The group, Tsar Team, is now demanding ransom from various clinics in Germany, UK, Norway, Denmark and other European countries.
According to the police, a number of photos were already released in March and that the remaining photos were dumped last Tuesday. The act has been severely condemned by the Deputy Chief of Lithuania’s Criminal Bureau as he stated that it is extortion and that the act is punishable by law, reports Lrytas TV.
Nevertheless, the ransom was not only demanded from clients, but the group has also reached out to the victims whose photos have been released, demanding from them a ransom of up to 2,000 euros.
The group says that unless the victims pay the ransom, their naked photos will be made public. Also, they say that other information such as passport copies and social security numbers will be revealed if the ransom is not paid on time.
From the clients, however, the amount of ransom is much larger than that demanded from individual victims. According to the latest report, the attackers want the clinics to pay 344,000 euros if they want their private information to remain safe.
The response: Surprisingly, the officials of these clinics have not relented and as such, have refused to pay the ransom. This has shocked many clients as they fear that their information might not be protected after all.
According to the director of Grozio Chirurgija, the attackers are only blackmailing the clients through text messages.
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The course of action: It has been reported that the police are working in collaboration with the relevant security experts to hunt down the group. Warnings have been issued saying that those who attempt to access the files or photos will also be implicated in the crime.
Criminals, as such, will be sentenced to three years of imprisonment.
The Grozio Chirurgija clinic, on the other hand, is playing its part to prevent the data from getting accessed illegally and has warned its clients to not download any content from unknown text messages or emails and report such correspondence to the police.
Image Credit: Shutterstock/Nito
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