PC vendor Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday confirmed that it was hacked twice in one week — once in Taiwan and once in India — but denied any damage or leak of customer data.
Acer spokesperson Steven Chung (鐘興維) said that the customers in India whose data were affected were informed, while no user data in Taiwan was compromised.
The hackers have tried to initiate communication, but Acer has not responded, Chung said.
Photo: Cho Yi-chun, Taipei Times
“We are not going to negotiate and it is not company policy to pay ransom to hackers,” he said.
Upon detecting the hack, Acer initiated all security protocols and conducted a full scan of its systems, he added.
A group of hackers calling themselves the Desorden Group has claimed responsibility for the two attacks, said tech news Web site zdnet.com, which was contacted by the group.
The hackers told zdnet.com that the attack was not done to obtain a ransom, but to “prove their point” that Acer does not practice the latest computer security, leaving its data and servers vulnerable to attacks.
Last month, the Desorden Group told the Web site Databreaches.net that their name stands for “chaos and disorder.”
“Desorden attacks along supply chains to create a higher level of disorder and chaos affecting many parties, rather than the victim itself. If the victim fails to pay, Desorden sells the data on the black market within a few days,” the group said, adding that they had hacked Malaysian logistics company ABX Express.
Chung did not confirm the identity of the group, saying only that “they have sent their message to the media.”
Chung also declined to give details about the number of customers affected by the Indian hack, saying that investigations into the two attacks are ongoing.
Acer said in a public statement that the incidents did not cause service disruptions and that the financial impact was limited.
Acer was hacked in March by the group REvil, who asked for a ransom of US$50 million.
Acer countered with an offer of US$10 million, which was rejected by the hackers, zdnet.com reported.
Chung declined to comment on the March incident, but reiterated that Acer would neither negotiate with hackers nor pay ransoms.
A previous statement from Acer said only that it had reported the incident to law enforcement in several countries.
Acer is not the only Taiwanese company to have experienced ransomware attacks. Contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), industrial computer manufacturer Advantech Co (研華) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) were all reportedly hacked last year.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
RSS