Hackers Demand as Much as $5 Million From Snowflake Clients.

Hackers are demanding payments ranging from $300,000 to $5 million from several companies that were targeted in a campaign against Snowflake Inc. customers. The cybercriminals have entered a new stage of the scheme, attempting to profit from the valuable information they have stolen by auctioning it on illegal online forums. The hacking group, known as UNC5537, used stolen login details to access the Snowflake accounts of up to 165 customers and has attempted to extort money from five to ten of them. The group has also made death threats against cybersecurity experts and used artificial intelligence to create fake nude photos to harass researchers. Illicit data brokers are now seeking higher prices for the stolen data, potentially to pressure affected firms to pay a ransom. Snowflake plans to close its internal investigation into the hacking campaign and has not detected any unauthorized access to its customers' servers in recent days. Other companies, including Ticketmaster owner Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and Pure Storage Inc., have also reported breaches related to Snowflake. Mandiant, the security firm assisting with the investigation, will release new guidance to help companies investigate data theft linked to the hacking campaign. [Extracted from the article]