They insist the hackers ‘verifiably’ deleted their copy of the data. I’d like to see how one verifies that ‘all’ copies were destroyed.
Press release goes out, saying the data was "deleted"
Send another ransom, maybe 5 BTC, otherwise data is released
Insert taps on head meme
Imho it’s much better to just sit on it for a few months, then hit the usual forums to market it as high-quality data.
To a criminal that's easily worth an ask of 5BTC - or perhaps x% of annual profits in perpetuity.
An extortion scam is likely to be worth more than the data.
A prolonged extortion scheme can only be done on a low-scale highly-targeted basis, where you can ensure word doesn’t get out.