Plex discovered that the server that hosts Plex’s forums and blog was compromised on July 1 at around 1 p.m. PDT. Eventually if no payment in Bitcoin is made, the user data will be released through multiple torrent networks and plex.tv will cease to exist.
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“As a precaution, we reset the plex.tv passwords of all users with linked forum accounts and reached out via email with further instructions for those affected”. On Thursday Plex officially announced their system has been hacked and the hackers have gained access to certain personal user information. even more astonishing is the fact the hacker is demanding ransom money in exchange for the information. However, if Plex does not pay the ransom by July 3, the hacker would increase the ransom amount to 14.5 bitcoins.
Savata has asked for 9.5 bitcoins, which is equivalent to about $2,400.
In addition, the hacker says they “don’t care where the BTC comes from”, and so forum members can also email savaka with a ransom payment to prevent their data being released.
Firms regularly overlook such coercion endeavors, as it creates an incentive for different cybercriminals to try the same ploy.
Payment card data was not exposed, he wrote, and Plex had “no reason to believe that any other parts of our system were compromised”. It will be up to Plex whether it will give in to Savaka’s demands or not.
In a disclosure made via a recent blog post, Plex support engineer Chris Curtis said that the video streaming service had discovered on Wednesday that a server hosting its forum and blog had been breached.
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For Plex users, there is not much else that can be done now, changing the Plex password, make sure the same password is not on other sites and change them on other sites as well, but keep in mind to change them frequently for safety.
