Russian media magnate Aram Gabrelyanov has announced to offer 1000 BTC as a reward to anyone who can help in identifying or tracking the group of hackers involved in the theft of some of his private documents.
An advertisement giving personal details of Gabrelyanov was noticed at ‘exchange of information’, a marketplace that offers private and sensitive information to the best bidder. 100 BTC was demanded by the person in order to return the cache of data, Themerkle.com reported.
A post by ‘Anonymous International’, a hacker group who previously hijacked the Russian prime minister’s Twitter account, included names of staff from the Russian multimedia information service ‘Life’, including Gabrelyanov, Anna Ahmadieva, Dmitry Kovalchuk, Samira Ramazanova who have fallen victim to the hackers (loosely translated). An alleged group member stated that Gabrelyanov’s private emails, facebook messages, photographs and other files contained in his cellphone were hacked.
Gabrelyanov’s posted a comment to his post on his Facebook account that read, “The hackers don’t believe that I stepped up the money. I just announced a bonus of 1,000 BTC to anyone providing hard evidence with the data of these hackers,” The Merkle stated.
In his Facebook post, he mentioned that his email has been hacked by the group. He also stated that last year he had paid an undisclosed amount to a group of hackers for being extorted (loosely translated).
Aram Ashotovich Gabrelyanov has been a Chief Deputy Executive Officer at JSC National Media Group since February 2011. Mr. Gabrelyanov serves as the General Director of the News Media holding company and Deputy General Director of National Media Group. He began his career in the media industry in 1989 as a Correspondent of the "Ulyanovsk Komsomolets" newspaper.
