Hacker Group Dark Overlord Claims to Have Proof of 9/11 Conspiracy, UFOs

Hacker group the Dark Overlord claims to have stolen 18,000 documents from business insurer Hiscox and several other law firms involved in litigation surrounding the September 11 attacks. The hacker group, previously responsible for the theft of Netflix episodes and several other cyberextortion attacks, is threatening to release the documents unless a ransom is paid in bitcoin.

In a statement posted to Pastebin, the Dark Overlord said it stole "hundreds of gigabytes of litigation related documents," including emails, voice mails, retainer agreements, nondisclosure agreements and communications between government bodies and Fortune 500 companies.

A spokesperson for the Hiscox Group confirmed details of a law firm breach to Motherboard, writing, "One of the cases the law firm handled for Hiscox and other insurers related to litigation arising from the events of 9/11, and we believe that information relating to this was stolen during that breach."

The Dark Overlord makes large claims for the stolen documents. "Edward Snowden leaks were quite impressive and caught the world's attention due to the highly sensitive nature of the materials and the global impact. What we're about to announce and leak will top Edward Snowden's finest work, both in volume and in impact," the document reads. It describes the theft as the "most significant data breach ever to have occurred."

While the Dark Overlord claims the fully leaked documents will "top Edward Snowden," the group has repeatedly emphasized its profit motive.

"Pay the fuck up, or we're going to bury you with this," its statement reads. It threatens to unlock an encrypted, 10 gigabyte tranche of documents in five different "layers," with more reputedly damning documents released later if its demands are unmet. "We're not motivated by political thoughts. We're not hacktivists. We're motivated only by our pursuit of internet money."

Preview documents released by the Dark Overlord haven't yet lived up to the hacker group's more sensational claims. Nor has its repeated invocation of 9/11 Truth, the catchall label used by conspiracy theorists to describe a collection of possible conspiracies involving the September 11 attacks—particularly the unfounded accusation that the attack was an "inside job" conducted by parties within the government.

"We'll be providing many answers about 9.11 conspiracies through our 18.0000 secret documents leak from @HiscoxComms and others," the Dark Overlord tweeted, before its account was suspended on Wednesday.

During a 4chan Q&A, the group additionally claimed to have documents related to UFO disclosure. "Now, our next release about UFOs, yeah, that's a 10 mate, but it's going to wait until we're done here."

The large volume of already released material includes memos from the Federal Aviation Administration, insurance payout mediation and other documents related to insurance claims in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Stolen documents from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals include arguments regarding liability, such as filings arguing for or against the liability of airport operators and airlines.

Some documents even undermine claims made by 9/11 conspiracy theorists about the supposed profit motive behind the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. Whereas conspiracy theorists often claim the owner of the World Trade Center, Silverstein Properties, would profit from the destruction of their own buildings, documents already leaked by the Dark Overlord record insurer payouts at a fraction of the buildings' valuation.

The material released so far offers insight into the complicated web of overlapping insurance claims, bureaucratic paper-shuffling and lobbying, but don't yet offer evidence of conspiracy.