Russian Hackers Attack Apple: Hackers Demand for a $50 Million Ransom

A Russian hacking group has targeted Apple this time for a $50 million ransom to avoid having their confidential information exposed on the Dark Web. It is reported that the attack was made via a Taiwan-based company, one of Apple’s laptop and other products manufacturers. They have threatened to leak images of upcoming Apple products everyday until they get paid. 

The hacked files were leaked on the “Dark Web Show” which showed the schematics for upcoming Macbook laptops. REvil, a Russian hacking group that is also renowned by the name Sodinokibi made this hack after breaching Quanta Computer, the World’s biggest laptop manufacturer in Taiwan. When they approached Quanta first for ransom, they refused to pay them back for their stolen data. Later, they decided to target Apple for ransom.

The stolen images of Apple products are already posted on a dark web portal including 21 screenshots of the recently launched iMac, diagrams for the M1 MacBook Air that debuted last year, and other laptops which have not been released yet. The REvil operators made clear in the message that “Our team is negotiating the sale of large quantities of confidential drawings and gigabytes of personal data with several major brands. We recommend that Apple buy back the available data by May 1.” So the group is trying to get paid either from Quanta or Apple by May 1.

Along with Apple, Quanta has a long client list of the biggest laptop vendors in the world, such as HP, Dell, Microsoft, Toshiba, LG, Lenovo, and many others. The REvil operator’s message as quoted above gives some hint that these brands might also be their next target.