Lady Gaga already has a lot on her plate at the moment, recently announcing the release date for her latest, Ariana Grande-featuring single from the forthcoming album Chromatica, besides helping fight the coronavirus pandemic in recent months.
Now though, Lady Gaga has also been targeted by hackers (or rather her law firm, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, has).
The unnamed hackers allege that they stole 756 gigabytes of data from the celebrity law firm – which also represents Nicki Minaj, Madonna, and other high-profile clients – last week, and on Thursday (April 14) leaked 2.4 gigabytes of legal material related to Gaga.
This includes contracts sent to producers, collaborators, and her tour crew, plus promotion and confidentiality agreements, and forms linked to the artist Jeff Koons.
In a “press release”, the hackers have set the ransom at $42 million, as reported by Rolling Stone, and also claim that they are in possession of documents connected to Donald Trump (which, if true, would have been a better choice to share publicly, tbh).
“Mr. Trump, if you want to stay president,” the group adds, “poke a sharp stick at the guys, otherwise you may forget this ambition forever.”
(A source close to the firm told Rolling Stone that it actually had no dealings with Trump.)
The firm itself has refused to pay the $42 million ransom fee (the biggest ransomware request on record), adding in a statement: “We have been informed by the experts and the FBI that negotiating with or paying ransom to terrorists is a violation of federal criminal law.”
“Even when enormous ransoms have been paid, the criminals often leak the documents anyway.”
“We are working directly with federal law enforcement and continue to work around the clock with the world’s leading experts to address this situation.”
The hackers have also previously leaked documents related to Lizzo and Madonna’s tours, as well as a form related to Christina Aguilera.
