Acer is the Taiwanese computer maker, with its headquarter located in Xizhi, New Taipei City.
According to reports, the company has suffered a ransomware attack, with ransomware gang asking $50 million in ransom payment to decrypt the company's computers and not leak its data to the dark web.
The attack is said to have not disrupted Acer's production, and only hit its back-office network. Because the attack was not thought to be disruptive enough, the company is said to have downplayed the attack.
As a result, the REvil ransomware gang, the culprit behind the attack, has published the company's name on the dark web portal, and has shared some screenshots of internal documents it allegedly stolen from Acer, as a warning for the computer maker, forcing it to pay.
Acer was able to discover and track down the dark web portal with the help of Marcelo Rivero, a malware intelligence analyst at Malwarebytes.
It is reported that the attackers may have gained access to the Taiwanese computer's network by exploiting a Microsoft Exchange vulnerability.
REvil is giving Acer until March 28th to pay the ransom. If payment is not received, Acer risks having its data leaked to the web.
Acer did not immediately reply to a request for comment, and only stated that “Companies like us are constantly under attack, and we have reported recent abnormal situations observed to the relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities in multiple countries.”
Acer did not acknowledge in its statement whether it had been the victim of a ransomware attack, but said that there was an “ongoing investigation” that prevented the company from commenting further due to security concerns.
It should be noted that $50 million is the highest ransom demand ever requested by a ransomware group, until this date.
Acer is at this time, the sixth-largest personal computer maker in the world, with a market share of about 6% of all global sales. The company reported a total revenue of roughly $3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, despite the record-breaking ransom demand.
