$50 million in ransom have been demanded from Taiwanese PC maker Acer by a hacker group. Reportedly, the hackers could hack into the system by exploiting the vulnerability of Microsoft Exchange.
The PC makers have been asked to pay the ransom amount on or before March 28, failing to do which the group may publish the data which it claims to have hacked.
REvil Group Is Behind The Attack
Reportedly, this group goes by the name of ‘REvil’. It is the same group which is said to be responsible for the last year’s ransomware attack on a London-based foreign currency exchange, Travelex.
Acer, post the whole incident said that companies of such scale are often under attack and also that the organization routinely monitors its IT systems, and most cyberattacks are well defensed. Though not explicitly admitting the attack, Acer said that abnormal situations have been observed to the relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities in multiple countries.
Highest Known Ransom Demand
Interestingly, in what seems to be the highest known ransom demand to date, a discount of 20% is offered by hackers if the company makes the payment by Wednesday. In return for the ransom, the group shall share a decryptor, a vulnerability report, and delete the stolen files.
The group also warned the company of not replicating the fate of SolarWind during the conservations between both parties.
The REvil group attack on Acer network was detected by an Advanced Intel’s Andariel cyber intelligence platform. One of vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange has been linked with the security breach. Critical security patches have been rolled out in order to fix the vulnerabilities. Chinese hackers, till now, were believed to be behind such attacks, but according to Engadget other hacker groups are also using the exploit.
Vulnerabilities in in Microsoft Exchange servers were targeted by hackers in as many as 32 organizations in India, according to a report by Check Point Research.
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