Quanta Computer is one of Apple's main third-party suppliers, trusted by the Cupertino-based company to build some of its Mac products.
And this time, the company has been hacked.
A group of hackers named REvil has stolen and published product blueprints from the Taiwan-based supplier, and is holding other blueprints under a $50 million ransom.
It's reported that REvil managed to get its hands on 15 images/schematics of unreleased MacBooks which include "specific component serial numbers, sizes and capacities detailing the many working parts inside" of the MacBook, per documents and blog posts seen by Bloomberg.
One of the images, was signed by an Apple designer, John Andreadis and dated March 9, 2021.
REvil claims that it plans to continue publishing the photos and documents of future Apple devices daily, unless Apple pays the ransom.
In its blog in the dark web, REvil demands that Apple pay the ransom before April 27.
Quanta Computer is not new in the business.
In fact, it has partnered with numerous tech companies, including Facebook, HP, Dell, BlackBerry, Alphabet's Google and some others.
But REvil however, was specifically targeting Apple.
“Quanta Computer’s information security team has worked with external IT experts in response to cyber attacks on a small number of Quanta servers,” the company said in a statement.
“We’ve reported to and kept seamless communications with the relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities concerning recent abnormal activities observed. There’s no material impact on the company’s business operation.”
REvil, also known as Sodinokibi and based in Russia, knows that it's not dealing with some small tech companies.
As a response, REvil initiated a chat with Quanta during negotiations for the attack, said it had stolen and encrypted "all local network data" and that it will not give it up until the $50 million ransom is paid.
And to shake things even more, the hackers also mentioned that they are “negotiating the sale of large quantities of confidential drawings and gigabytes of personal data with several major brands,” implying that Apple may not be the only company affected by this hack.
“In order not to wait for the upcoming Apple presentations, today we, the REvil group, will provide data on the upcoming releases of the company so beloved by many. Tim Cook can say thank you Quanta. From our side, a lot of time has been devoted to solving this problem. Quanta has made it clear to us that it does not care about the data of its customers and employees, thereby allowing the publication and sale of all data we have.”
Previously before the hack was announced, REvil on its dark web website, announced that it wanted to initiate its “largest attack ever.” The post was made in Russian on a channel where the REvil group recruits new affiliates.
And after the hack was made public, REvil’s ‘Happy Blog’ , which is a website where the hacker gang publicly names and shames victims in hopes of coaxing ransom payment, declared Quanta its victim.
Ransomware hacking groups are known to lie once in a while, and create baseless threats. But REvil is not an ordinary hacker group, and is already considered a prominent ransomware gang.
In the past, REvil has been responsible for a number of high profile attacks and also some of the highest demands to have become publicly known, including Acer's case and the New York City prominent law firm's case.
Fortunately in this hack, there’s no material impact on the company’s business operation.
After all, Quanta, which is one of the largest laptop manufacturers in the world, only partners with Apple to assemble the hardware Apple wants, based on the designs supplied by the Cupertino company.
But unfortunately, this hack makes Apple's hardware plans to come into the light, before Apple is even ready to announce those devices.
As a giant tech companies so influential in the industry, Apple events where the company introduce or launch new products, are among the most anticipated moment in tech. Apple has new devices in the works at any given time.
From expected products such as new iPhones, iPads, MacBooks and iMacs, to new device categories such as augmented reality (AR) glasses.
And this leak, despite not directly damaging Apple, can be troublesome for the brand.
Apple famously takes the secrecy of unreleased products extremely seriously, and this is one of the way Apple is able to build a fan base by garnering public's anticipation.
It should be noted that the leak happened as Apple held its "Spring Loaded" event, where it unveiled new iPad Pros, a redesigned iMac, an updated Apple TV, and the long-awaited release of AirTags.
