A gang of thieves illegally acquires 3,000 SpaceX designs and blackmails Musk for selling them.

A ransomware gang has claimed to have stolen 3,000 of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket team designs and is threatening to sell them to competitors.

Earlier this week, a group calling itself LockBit warned the American billionaire, threatening to sell the leaked designs in an auction on March 20.

In an online posting, the group said the designs would find a buyer in no time, according to Britain’s Daily Mail.

“We’ll help you sell your designs to other manufacturers, like build a ship faster and fly far,” she wrote in a post to Musk.

“SpaceX engineers have approved about 3,000 drawings,” she added, adding, “We will launch the auction within a week and all available data will be published!”

Countdown

In addition, a live countdown on the page showed the number of days remaining, which is the deadline for SpaceX to pay an undisclosed amount to the ransomware group.

Also under the post are three “secret” documents allegedly leaked from Maximum Industries, which is believed to be a SpaceX contractor.

It also included an engine design, a non-disclosure agreement between SpaceX and Maximum Industries, and kits for Starship.

$100 million from the victims

For its part, the US Department of Justice said that LockBit first appeared in early 2020 and has since received at least $100 million from ransom victims around the world.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been investigating the group since March 2020 and believes there were up to 1,000 victims worldwide.

Notably, LockBit’s threats were not limited to the aerospace industry, as cheese maker Bonta Viva and real estate company Radium Life Technology face similar buyout threats.