Acer has come under a $ 50 million ransom attack
The Taiwanese electronics and computer maker Acer was attacked by a ransom, as the hacking group demanded the largest known ransom so far, $ 50 million.
Acer is best known for laptops, desktops, and monitors, and the company employs nearly 7,000 employees, and made $ 7.8 billion in 2019.
The ransomware attack gang announced on its website that it had penetrated Acer and shared some pictures of the stolen files as evidence for documents that include financial statements, bank balances and banking communications.
Acer did not provide a clear answer regarding whether it had been subjected to a ransom attack, but made it clear that there is an ongoing investigation and for security purposes.
We routinely monitor our IT systems, most cyberattacks are well defended, companies like us are constantly attacked, and we recently reported anomalies that have been observed to law enforcement and related data protection authorities in many countries, the company said.
She added: We are constantly working to improve our cybersecurity infrastructure to protect business continuity and the integrity of our information, and we urge all companies and institutions to adhere to cybersecurity specialties, best practices and vigilance against any disruption in network activity.
It appears that the attackers gained access to the Taiwanese computer manufacturer's network via a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange.
The REvil group that carried out the ransomware attack against Travelex last year is believed to be behind the Acer hack as well.
And in the conversations between the victim and REvil, which began on March 14, an Acer representative was shocked by the massive $ 50 million demand.
Later in the chat, a REvil representative shared a link to Acer's data leak page, which was classified at the time.
REvil Group gives Acer until March 28th to pay the ransom in order to give it a decryption tool with a report on vulnerabilities and delete stolen files, otherwise the data it has collected will be leaked.
Microsoft recently released several security updates to fix vulnerabilities found in Microsoft Exchange, but it was not immediately clear if the Acer hack was connected or not.