The Russian hacker group attacked Apple’s manufacturing partner with ransomware, demanding a ransom of $ 50 million

Apple was targeted in a $ 50 million ransomware attack after a group of hackers stole a series of engineering and manufacturing schematics of current and future products from Quanta, a public company. Taiwan-based company that makes MacBooks and other products for Apple.

The attack, as reported by The Record , was carried out by REvil, a Russian hacker group also known as Sodinokibi. The group started posting the stolen photos on April 20, even timing the publication to coincide with Apple’s latest “Spring Loaded” event, after Quanta refused to pay $ 50 million in data ransom. . The group is currently hoping to get paid for by Apple itself before May 1, otherwise they will continue to post new images from the daily leak until the request is made.

Quanta confirmed that its servers were hacked in a statement to Bloomberg, commenting: “Quanta Computer’s information security team has been working with outside IT experts to deal with the problems. network attack on a small number of “Quanta servers.” The company also reported “no significant business impact” due to the effects of the hack.

Bleeping Computer points out that REvil has a history of ransomware attacks in the past, and the team has done similar hacks against Acer and other companies over the past few months. But the Quanta attack – thanks to its ties to Apple and Apple’s ability to reveal top secret hardware – marks this as the group’s biggest target.

The extent of the leak is still unknown, but the images revealed by REvil so far include an iMac redesign that has just been revealed by Apple, something no one had seen before April 20. These documents seem quite accurate. The diagrams also include warning lines on nearly every page, saying: “This is an Apple property and it must be returned”, as well as indicating that documents cannot be copied, printed, or otherwise returned. publish.

Also appearing in the revealed files are production schematics for Apple’s released MacBook Air M1 2020 refresh, and an unannounced laptop with additional ports matching the news. Existing companion on the upcoming Apple laptop refresh.

Refer to The Verge