WASHINGTON: The hackers alleged to be behind a mass ransomware attack than affected hundreds of companies worldwide late on Sunday demanded $70 million to liberate the data.

The demand was posted by REvil cybercrime gang on their blog. Allan Liska, with cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, said the message appeared to be authentic and that the blog had been in use by that group since last year.

(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Kim Coghill) ((Raphael.Satter@thomsonreuters.com;))