Hackers who attempted to extort a nursery chain by posting stolen images and data about children on the darknet have removed the posts and claim to have deleted the information.<\/p>\n
The criminals began posting profiles<\/a> of the children to their website last Thursday, adding another 10 children days later and vowing to continue <\/a>until Kido Schools paid a ransom in Bitcoin.<\/p>\n The criminals also contacted parents directly with threatening phone calls whilst trying to get their ransom paid.<\/p>\n But public revulsion at their attack appears to have forced the criminals to backtrack.<\/p>\n First they blurred the images but kept the data up – now they have taken all the information offline, and apologised for their actions.<\/p>\n Their apparent change of heart has been met with scepticism by experts, who had previously condemned the targeting of nurseries as a “new low” for cyber-criminals.<\/p>\n “This is more about pragmatism than morality,” said cyber-security expert Jen Ellis.<\/p>\n “These criminals are clearly shocked and worried by the attention their hack has caused and they are trying to protect themselves or their brand.”<\/p>\n The hackers claim to have deleted everything they took – which included the private details and pictures of around 8,000 children as well as contact information for parents and carers.<\/p>\n “All child data is now being deleted. No more remains and this can comfort parents,” one of the cyber-criminals involved told the BBC.<\/p>\n It’s understood Kido have not paid the hackers a ransom which was thought to be around \u00a3100,000.<\/p>\n Past cases have shown that hackers often say they have deleted stolen data and been found to have kept it or sold it on.<\/p>\n When the UK’s National Crime Agency took down the cyber crime gang LockBit<\/a> they discovered troves of data still on the criminal’s servers that victims had paid to be deleted.<\/p>\n The nursery hackers, calling themselves Radiant, appear to be concerned that their hack has crossed an undefined moral line since the public outcry began against them.<\/p>\n “We are sorry for hurting kids,” the cyber-criminals told BBC News.<\/p>\n It’s not known who the hackers or hacker are but they appear to be a new and possibly inexperienced group. <\/p>\n Their darknet site is newly created but they claim to have carried out other hacks in the past.<\/p>\n This isn’t the first time that cyber-criminals have backtracked on an attack.<\/p>\n In 2020 a gang using Dopplepaymer ransomware gifted their encryption key to a German hospital after the chaos contributed to the death<\/a> of an emergency care patient.<\/p>\n