Furthermore, if Apple were to pay, it would open the floodgates for more attempts to extort them – leading to problems on a whole new level. There is only a very limited amount of 'proof', which could still turn out to be stolen from a variety of other sources, so it is never advised to pay ransom demands. However, recent attempts suggest they will not pay, however frightened they might be. Apple supplier Quanta Computer confirms it's fallen victim to ransomware attack REvil gang starts publishing designs of what appear to be unreleased products Matthew Hughes Wed // 17:58 UTC 10 Quanta Computer, an ODM laptop manufacturer and prolific Apple supplier, has now confirmed that digital burglars broke into its systems. "Apple takes great pride in securing its data alongside its supply chain, which attracts bad actors to test their securities for the possible kudos at stake. I'll leave the final words to ESET cybersecurity specialist Jake Moore. The breach happens the second the data leaves the building, and response actions have to be based around minimizing the potential impact to victims that are in your control."
"In terms of dealing with personal data leaks, how could you possibly trust a criminal group not to later leak the data anyway," he said, adding, "a payment would reek of a cover-up attempt and possibly money laundering charges. "This can be accompanied by industry, economic and market conditions," Muldoon said, "factoring three or four variables into this business decision will help support a business in making an informed decision on the possible impact to the business, including brand and reputational damage."Īndy Norton, European cyber-risk officer at Armis, however, insists that paying a ransom should never be encouraged. "Paying the ransom may seem like the obvious decision a business would make here," Muldoon continued, "but there are other factors that the business needs to consider when making this decision." Factors such as an analysis of factors associated with the attack: the means, the motive, and opportunity. "Out of all the various types of cyber-crime activities," Niamh Muldoon, global data protection officer at OneLogin, said, "ransomware is the one activity that has a high direct return of investment associated with it." While REvil has acquired Apple's blueprints and confidential data, it is still unclear as to whether or not it also obtained documents for Quanta's other clients which include HP, Facebook and Google among others.That ransomware attacks make the headlines so often is hardly surprising, given the high-profile targets and the skyrocketing ransom demands being made.
At the time, the group also asked for $50m in cryptocurrency to decrypt Acer's files with the threat that it would increase the ransom to $100m if the company refused to agree to its terms. This is because cybercriminals have begun to move away from demanding their ransoms in Bitcoin in favor of Monero as it is much harder to track.Įarlier this year REvil deployed ransomware on another Taiwanese hardware maker's networks when it hacked Acer.
The ransomware group has demanded that Quanta pay it 123,028 Monero ($50m) to delete the files it has stolen and decrypt the company's locked systems. So far REvil has published some of the blueprints it has acquired including one for an unreleased MacBook dated March 2021 and as the company's last business laptop was released in November of last year, the design could be for an upcoming device.