A group of cybercriminals have targeted an open source software development platform called GitHub. They removed code repositories and then asked for a ransom from the developers in exchange of restoring the source code.

Business technology news website ZDNet said the attack took place on Friday, May 3. The report also said that almost 100 of the developers have had the Git source code repositories wiped out and replaced with a ransom demand.

As per the report, the attackers claimed that all source code was downloaded and stored on one of their anonymous servers. They also clarified that the victims have 10 days to pay the ransom and if they fail to do so, then they will publish these hacked codes.

"To recover your lost code and avoid leaking it: Send us 0.1 Bitcoin (BTC) to our Bitcoin address ES14c7qLb5CYhLMUekctxLgc1FV2Ti9DA and contact us by Email at admin@gitsbackup.com with your Git login and a Proof of Payment. If you are unsure if we have your data, contact us and we will send you a proof. Your code is downloaded and backed up on our servers. If we dont receive your payment in the next 10 Days, we will make your code public or use them otherwise," hackers wrote in the ransom message.

It should be noted that as per the Microsoft-owned GitHub search, at least 392 repositories have been compromised.

After the incident, the Director of Security for GitLab, Kathy Wang, told ZDnet that they have identified those user accounts which were affected due to the hacking event and all of them were notified about the data breach.

In addition, Wang stated, "As a result of our investigation, we have strong evidence that the compromised accounts have account passwords being stored in plain text on the deployment of a related repository."