Ransomware group LockBit has claimed to have stolen 3,000 designs from Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket team and threatened to sell them to its competitors.
Earlier this week, LockBit told Elon Musk about the incident and warned that the certified designs would be made public or auctioned off at a major event on March 20. The group posted on the dark web, “We feel very fortunate that the SpaceX contractors are really chatty. I think the material will find a buyer soon.”
The post also said, “Elon Musk, we will help you sell the designs to other manufacturers to build the spacecraft faster and then take off. Now I’ll give you the exact number: about 3,000 drawings certified by SpaceX engineers. We will launch the auction within a week. All available data will be published!”
The dark page also shows real-time countdown numbers with just four days left until SpaceX will pay the ransomware group this undisclosed ransom. Below the post are three “classified” documents allegedly leaked from Maximum Industries, a company believed to be a contractor for SpaceX.
Neither SpaceX nor Maximum Industries have commented on the stolen documents, which include vacuum engine designs, a non-disclosure agreement between SpaceX and Maximum Industries, and kit designs for the Starship.
LockBit first appeared in early 2020 and has since extorted at least $100 million (currently about $690 million) in ransom money from victims around the world, according to U.S. Department of Justice materials. The FBI has been investigating the group since March 2020 and believes there have been as many as 1,000 victims worldwide.
LockBit’s ransom attacks are not limited to the aerospace sector, as cheese maker Bonta Viva and real estate developer Radium Life Technology are also facing ransom ultimatums. In January, the Royal Mail reportedly rejected LockBit’s ransom demand of nearly $80 million (currently about 552 million RMB).
LockBit’s threat to release the design of the Starship comes on the heels of rumors that the Starship could explode during its first orbital launch in the coming weeks. Elon Musk has said that SpaceX will build more Starship rockets if the launch fails, and he believes there is an 80 percent chance that one of them will be in orbit by the end of this year.
NASA hopes the Starship will be able to transport astronauts to the surface of the moon within a few years, and down the road, Elon Musk wants to use the giant Starship to send large numbers of people to Mars. I don’t guarantee it will make it to orbit, but I guarantee it will be exhilarating,” he said. At least we won’t be bored until we get to Mars in an interstellar spacecraft!”
