Revolut Denies Direct Contact Amid $3M Ransom Demand

Revolut has denied receiving direct communication from hackers demanding $3 million in exchange for not releasing customer data stolen in a recent breach. The demand, made by a group calling itself 'IAmNotAVillain', was reported by the Financial Times and amounts to approximately 6,000 Monero (XMR), worth about $502.03 each.

Despite this public ransom threat, Revolut maintains that it has not received any direct contact or demand from the individuals behind those claims. This lack of communication is significant because public ultimatums do not automatically indicate which party actually holds the data, how much has been extracted, or whether the threat is actionable.

The situation is complicated by competing ransom claims made by multiple groups, including 'Revolut Smilik', which reportedly demanded 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $780 million at the time. This larger demand was disputed by 'IAmNotAVillain', which claimed that a former associate had only received a small sample of the data before taking credit for the breach.

Italian investigators are broadening their probe into the suspected intrusion, which appears to have involved a cloned or compromised government email account. Regulators in Italy have asked banks to review access security and examine whether other institutions may have been affected by the same breach method.