Taiwanese computer maker Acer was hit by one of the biggest, if not the biggest ransomware attacks in history. The attackers demanded a whopping $50 million ransom from Acer, likely because it’s a massive corporation that reported $3 billion in earnings in the fourth quarter last year.
The attackers belonged to the same hacking group called REvil that was responsible for the $6 million ransomware attack on Travelex last year. According to reports, the group managed to exploit a Microsoft Exchange vulnerability to gain entry into the company’s network. They announced this on a dark web portal and even posted images for proof.
The hackers have given Acer until March 28 to pay up before they would leak the data they stole on the internet. They reportedly offered Acer a 20% discount if they made the payment before Wednesday.
Acer was reached out to comment on the matter, but the company never admitted that it was under a ransomware attack only saying that it has:
Reported recent abnormal situations observed to the relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities in multiple countries.
It was Advanced Intel’s Andariel cybersecurity platform that originally reported how the breach was caused by a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Exchange server. The American software maker had recently released security patches to fix the vulnerability but it appears that the attackers had been prepared for it.
