Hackers say they have stolen a wealth of company and personal information from US adhesive, glue, and tape company Gorilla Glue. The hackers have previously tried to extort medical organizations by demanding a sizable ransom payment in exchange for not releasing hacked data publicly.
“We have everything they ever created,” someone from the hacking group The Dark Overlord told Motherboard in an online chat.
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The hackers claim to have over 500 GB of research and development materials, including intellectual property and product designs, and access to Dropbox and personal email accounts related to the family-run Gorilla Glue.
The Dark Overlord sent Motherboard a 200MB cache of files that they had also allegedly provided to Gorilla Glue as proof of the hack. It contains apparent Gorilla Glue financial spreadsheets, invoices, strategy documents, presentations, contracts with banks, and other internal material. These detailed documents don’t appear to be available on the public internet. The case highlights the sort of sensitive commercial material hackers can obtain from many normal businesses.
Read more: Another Day, Another Hack
Several Gorilla Glue executives and staff members did not respond to Motherboard’s calls for comment, and did not respond to emails either. The company did not respond to a request for comment left with Gorilla Glue’s main office number.
The FBI declined to say whether it is investigating the incident.
Motherboard contacted several other companies implicated in the documents, such as the recipients of invoices or other parties in contracts, but has not received a response.
But the hackers also obtained personal photos apparently of Gorilla Glue’s executives and family. Motherboard cross-referenced some of the photos with different ones found online, and the hacked files do indeed picture Gorilla Glue employees. The hacked photos did not return any results when processed through reverse image search engines.
The Dark Overlord did not explain how they allegedly hacked Gorilla Glue.
A screenshot of an internal presentation the hackers obtained. Motherboard has redacted its content.
In previous cases, The Dark Overlord has listed hacked data on the dark web in an attempt to intimidate victims further. Approaching the media with information about hacks is also a clear tactic of the group.
The Dark Overlord would not say whether they were attempting to extort Gorilla Glue, but told Motherboard, “We approached them with a handsome business proposition. However, there has been a moderate dispute.” The group described this act as “industrial espionage.”
But, judging by previous incidents when compared to this one, it is likely that the hackers are trying to squeeze a ransom payment out of Gorilla Glue.
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