Acer, the Taiwanese computer manufacturer, has revealed that its after-sales support systems in India were recently compromised in an “isolated attack.”
A communications professional employed with Acer said, “”When we discovered it, we immediately activated our security processes and ran a comprehensive system scan. We are in the process of alerting all potentially affected consumers in India”
The spokesperson further added, “The incident has been notified to local law enforcement as well as the Indian Computer Emergency Response (CERT-In) Team, and it has had no major impact on our operations or business continuity.”
While Acer did not reveal the identities of the attackers, a threat actor has already claimed the attack on a famous hacker forum, claiming that they stole more than 60GB of files and databases from Acer’s servers.
The reportedly stolen data includes client, corporate, and financial information, as well as login information for Acer merchants and distributors in India.
The threat actor offered a video demonstrating the stolen files and databases, the records of 10,000 customers, and the credentials of 3,000 Indian Acer distributors and merchants as proof.
<Acer Breach Bleeping Computer>
Second breach reported in Seven months
This is the second time this year that the computer giant’s servers have been compromised, following the ransomware attack claimed by REvil in March.
Acer was asked to pay $50,000,000 for a decryptor and the return of the stolen data. This was considered to be the greatest publicly known ransom at the time (REvil broke their record in July, demanding $70 million from Kaseya).
When pressed to confirm the March ransomware attack by an IT publication, Acer did not provide a clear answer, instead stating that they “reported recent odd events” to relevant law enforcement agencies and data protection authorities.
Acer responded to subsequent requests for more information by saying, “there is an ongoing investigation and for the purposes of security, we are unable to comment on details.”
<Acer exchange server being targeted>
According to Gartner, Acer is a Taiwanese multinational specializing in hardware and electronics and the world’s sixth-largest PC seller by unit sales.
The company employs around 7,000 people in 40 countries and made $8.34 billion in revenue in 2019.
To read more, please check eScan Blog
