LockBit claims Federal Reserve breach, threatens release of 'Americans' banking secrets'

Russian ransomware group LockBit claims it has breached the U.S. Federal Reserve and is threatening to release 33 terabytes of sensitive data, including "Americans' banking secrets," on Tuesday.

"33 terabytes of juicy banking information containing Americans' banking secrets," LockBit wrote Sunday on its data leak site.

"You better hire another negotiator within 48 hours, and fire this clinical idiot who values Americans' bank secrecy at $50,000," the group added.

While the Federal Reserve has not confirmed the hack, a number of cybersecurity experts are discounting LockBit's claims, saying there are no published samples of the stolen data.

"No proof so prolly just blowing off steam," said security researcher Dominic Alvieri.

"LockBit's claim is likely complete and utter bollo ... erm, nonsense, and a tactic designed to get its ailing RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) back into the limelight," Brett Callow, threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emisisoft, told the Daily Dot.

LockBit has conducted numerous high-profile ransomware attacks on companies, banks and government departments around the world since 2019, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Port of Nagoya in Japan, British Royal Mail, Fulton County in Georgia and Boeing.

Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department announced a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved in LockBit.

Last month, the United States, Britain and Australia sanctioned and indicted Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, a Russian national accused of leading LockBit and extorting some $120 million in ransom payments from victims worldwide in more than 2,000 known attacks.

In a separate attack earlier this month, the FBI informed victims of LockBit ransomware that it had obtained more than 7,000 LockBit decryption keys that could allow them to recover their encrypted data for free.

"Additionally, from our ongoing disruption of LockBit, we now have over 7,000 decryption keys and can help victims reclaim their data and get back online," said Bryan Vorndran, the assistant director at the FBI Cyber Division.