NRA confirms last year’s ransomware attack

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

According to a report from Gizmodo, the National Rifle Association has confirmed that it was the target of a ransomware attack last October.

In a filing to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the organization's political action committee (PAC) explains that the network of the National Rifle Association was offline for two weeks in October of 2021.

A Russian group that goes by the name of Grief took credit for hacking the National Rifle Association and posting documents on the dark web. If the payment threshold wasn't met, Grief would release more documents.

There is no word on whether the NRA paid up. The organization never publicly confirmed the attack at the time, and instead issued a statement on the internet, saying it takes extraordinary measures to protect.

The NRA didn't respond to the request for comment. It notes in the filing that it has implemented additional measures to reduce the likelihood of a repeat.