Acer reportedly became the victim of a massive ransomware attack, in which hackers are asking for $ 50 million to release the company’s stolen data, Biping Computer reported on Friday. However, the company has not publicly confirmed the attack, vaguely stating that “companies like ours are constantly under attack”.
According to Bleeping Computer, the attack was carried out by hacker group REvil, who announced on its data leak website that it had breached Acer. As evidence, the group shared images of the alleged files they stole, which include financial spreadsheets, bank balances and bank communications. IIn fact, this would be the biggest rescue attempt ever demanded. In 2020, the biggest rescue attempt Up to the present date was $ 30 million, ZDNet reported.
REvil is the same group linked to Travelex attack in 2020. Reports from that time stated that the group had asked for a $ 6 million bailout. In the end, the company reportedly paid the REvil group about $ 2.3 million worth bitcoin.
Gizmodo contacted Acer to confirm the report and request comments. The company did not recognize whether it was the victim of an attack. He acknowledged that he had reported recent “abnormal situations” to the authorities.
“Acer routinely monitors its IT systems, and most cyber attacks are well defended. Companies like us are constantly under attack, and we report recent abnormal situations observed to relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities in several countries, ”said Acer. “We have been continuously improving our cybersecurity infrastructure to protect business continuity and the integrity of our information.”
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Acer added that it urged companies and organizations to adhere to best cybersecurity practices and “be on the lookout for any abnormalities in network activity”.
Bleeping Computer reported that, like the French agency LeMagIT, discovered the example of REvil ransomware used in the Acer attack. The agency also analyzed the ransom note and the victim’s convictioninteraction with hackers, which Bleeping Computer claims to confirm that the attack was against Acer. Hackers have supposedly given to Acer until March 28 to pay the ransom.
Some experts told the agency that the breach could be related to a Microsoft Exchange server in the Acer domain, which REvil hackers recently targeted. It is not clear whether the hackers exploited the Microsoft Exchange security vulnerabilities revealed earlier this month, whose first estimates say they have committed some 30,000 U.S. organizations.
However, the number of committed entities worldwide can be much higher, with some reports claiming that there are at least 60,000 known victims around the globe.