A scammer threatens to put data online unless paid

On the 20th of July, I read a very interesting article about a scammer that decided that it would be a good idea to ask for more than he probably deserved. Not only did he get paid for ransomware attacks, he decided to ransom more money for not publishing the stolen data he had.

The government of Cyprus has extradited a 21-year-old accused cybercriminal to the United States after he was accused of breaching a number of U.S. companies
as part of a years-long extortion effort.

Joshua Epifaniou, a Cypriot national, arrived in New York City on Friday, more than two years after he was initially arrested in connection with a corporate
hacking spree.

According to the article from Cyberscoop, the gentleman stole from multiple sites, than asked for more money to not publish the data.

To add insult to injury, the article states:

Epifaniou also hacked Ripoff Report, a business accountability site, and charged his clients between $3,000 and $5,000 to delete relevant complaints, prosecutors
contend. Epifaniou also allegedly worked with a search engine optimization firm to research companies disparaged on Ripoff Report that would be most likely
to pay for his services.

How does it feel to get caught now?

He was scheduled to appear in Georgia several days after this article was published, and I’d sure like to know what defense he has, seeing that the government has quite a bit on him.

Accused Cypriot scammer threatened to publish stolen data if victims didn’t pay huge extortion fees is the article from Cyberscoop, have fun!