Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On March 17, the blackmail software group LockBit claimed to have stolen 3000 design drawings from Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket team and threatened to sell them to its competitors.

LockBit informed Musk earlier this week and warned that the certified designs would be made public or auctioned at a major event on March 20. "We feel very lucky that the contractors at SpaceX are really talkative. I think these materials will find buyers soon," the gang said in a post on the dark website.

The post also said: "Musk, we will help you sell the blueprints to other manufacturers so that you can build the spaceship faster and then take off. Now I will provide you with specific numbers: about 3000 drawings certified by SpaceX engineers. We will start the auction within a week. All available data will be released!"

The Dark Web page also shows a real-time countdown, just four days before SpaceX will pay the undisclosed ransom to the blackmail software group. There are also three "confidential" documents allegedly leaked from Maximum Industries, which is believed to be a contractor for SpaceX.

The stolen documents included vacuum engine blueprints, a confidentiality agreement signed between SpaceX and Maximum Industries, and starship kit blueprints. Neither SpaceX nor Maximum Industries could be reached for comment.

LockBit first emerged in early 2020 and has since extorted at least $100m (currently about 690 million yuan) from victims around the world, according to the US Department of Justice. The Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) has been investigating the group since March 2020 and believes that there are as many as 1000 victims worldwide.

LockBit's extortion attacks are not limited to aerospace. Cheese maker Bonta Viva and real estate developer Radium Life Technology also face ultimatums to pay ransoms. Royal Mail reportedly rejected a ransom demand of nearly $80 million (currently about 552 million yuan) from LockBit in January.

Before LockBit threatened to release plans for the starship, there were rumors that the starship could explode during its first orbital launch in the coming weeks. Mr Musk has said that if the launch fails, SpaceX will build more starship rockets, one of which he thinks has an 80 per cent chance of going into orbit by the end of the year.

NASA hopes that starships can transport astronauts to the surface of the moon within a few years, while Musk hopes to use huge starships to send a large number of people to Mars in the future. "I don't guarantee it will go into orbit, but I promise it will be exciting," he said. "at least we won't get bored before we take a starship to Mars!"

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