More than 21,000 people have had their personal information leaked on the dark web by cyber criminals who hacked in to the PN's computer system. Files including names, addresses, ID cards and, in some cases, phone numbers were published on a hackers’ forum in recent days after a ransomware attack last month. The file was labelled in such a way to suggest the people whose data was leaked are either current or former tesserati (paid-up members ). Last month, hackers had threatened to leak “valuable” Nationalist Party documents unless the party agreed to “communicate and cooperate” with them. Leader Bernard Grech had said in an interview that the party would not negotiate with cyber criminals.