In a bold move, a hacker group calling itself Scattered LapSus Hunters has issued an ultimatum to Google, threatening to leak company records unless the tech giant meets two demands: firing two specific employees and halting network investigations. The warning was posted on a Telegram channel, and it marks a dramatic escalation in the ongoing digital conflict.
The group is reportedly a collective of hackers with members from notorious organizations such as Scattered Spider, LapSus, and ShinyHunters. Their demands are clear: they want Google to terminate two individuals, Austin Larsen and Charles Carmakal, and to cease all network probes by the Google Threat Intelligence Group. Both Larsen and Carmakal work within this threat intelligence division, which is responsible for proactively tracking and mitigating cyber threats.
The Context: A Recent Salesforce Breach
This latest threat comes just weeks after Google announced in August that it had been a victim of a data breach. The company confirmed that a third-party service provider, Salesforce, which it used for certain business services, had been compromised. The hacker group ShinyHunters was identified as the culprit behind that breach. The stolen data was described as “basic and largely publicly available business information” related to small and medium-sized businesses, such as company names and contact details.
While the new hacker group, Scattered LapSus Hunters, has not provided any evidence that they have accessed any of Google’s main databases, and there have been no recent compromises of Google’s core user data, the threat is being taken seriously. The ultimatum appears to be a direct response to Google’s cybersecurity efforts and its public disclosure of the Salesforce breach.
This incident highlights the high-stakes nature of modern cybersecurity, where hackers are not only seeking to steal data but are also using public threats to exert pressure on corporations and their security personnel.