Acer has reportedly been the victim of a massive ransomware attack, in which hackers are asking $ 50 million to release the company’s stolen data, Bleeping Computer Reported Friday. The company, however, did not publicly confirm the attack, vaguely saying that ‘companies like ours are constantly being attacked’.
According to Bleeping Computer, the attack was carried out by the REvil hacker group, who announced on his data leak website that he had infringed Acer. As evidence, the group shared images of the alleged files they stole, which include financial spreadsheets, bank balances and bank communications. IIf true, this would be the biggest ransom ever claimed. In 2020, the ransom is the highest effort to date wash $ 30 million, Report ZDNet.
REvil is the same group that Travelex attack in 2020. According to reports from the time, the group asked for a ransom of $ 6 million. In the end, the company allegedly paid about $ 2.3 million to the REvil group value of bitcoin.
Gizmodo reached out to Acer to confirm the report and to comment. The company did not acknowledge whether it was the victim of an attack. It did admit that he had reported recent “abnormal situations” to authorities.
‘Acer monitors its IT systems regularly, and most cyberattacks are well defended. “Companies like ours are constantly being attacked and we have recently reported abnormal situations to the relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities in various countries,” said Acer. “We have continually improved our cyber security infrastructure to protect business continuity and our information integrity.”
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Acer added that it calls on businesses and organizations to follow best cyber security practices and ‘be vigilant for abnormal networking activities’.
Bleeping Computer reports that it, as well as the French outlet LeMagIT, discover the sample of the ransom REvil used in the Acer attack. The outlet also analyzed the ransom letter and the victim’s convictionBleeping Computer says the attack was on Acer. Hackers have to be heard Acer given until March 28 to pay the ransom.
Some experts said the breach was related to a Microsoft Exchange server on Acer’s domain, which the REvil hijackers recently targeted. It is not clear if the hackers used it Microsoft Exchange Vulnerabilities unveiled earlier this month, according to early estimates, about 30,000 U.S. organizations compromised.
Nevertheless, the number of entities being compromised worldwide could be much higher, with some reports stating that at least 60,000 known victims around the world.