Samsung and Nvidia are being blackmailed by the hacker group “Lapsus$”. He managed to steal the company’s confidential data. Two teenagers have now been arrested.
The hacker group “Lapsus$” is currently threatening companies worldwide. (Source: hin255 / depositphotos.com)
- The hacker group “Lapsus$” has named itself after a ransomware that it uses.
- The group made an international appearance as early as December 2021.
- Two teenagers have now been identified.
The name “Lapsus$” is currently haunting the media. Behind the pseudonym is a hacker group that is primarily targeting larger companies. Samsung and Nvidia are among the most prominent victims.
Update March 24: Two suspect teenagers have been identified in connection with the extortion. You can find the update at the end of this article.
The two chip giants are not the first victims of the group. The hackers struck back in December 2021 and attacked the Brazilian Ministry of Health. According to their own statements, they stole 50 terabytes of data there.
Samsung hacked: This is what you should do now
Lapsus$ has struck again
Hackers stole over 190 gigabytes of data from Samsung servers. The Nvidia example shows that there are now some dangers with a Galaxy cell phone.
Another victim of the group was the Portuguese media group Impresa at the turn of the year. At times, they controlled several of the company’s websites and social media accounts. They also sent a phishing email to subscribers to the weekly Expresso newsletter.
This is how the group works
The way the group works is always the same. They infiltrate corporate IT, presumably via phishing emails. Once they gain access, the hackers steal data and paralyze systems with Lapsus$ ransomware. In some cases, the hackers make ransom demands for recovering the stolen data.
Whether and how much money “Lapsus$” has captured in this way is unknown. It’s also unclear where the group came from. “Lapsus$” uses the messenger Telegram, among others, as a mouthpiece. In the meantime, Ubisoft and Microsoft have also become victims of hacker attacks.
Who is behind this? March 24 update
According to a Bloomberg article Two teenagers were identified as members of “Lapsus$”. A 16 year old living at home with his mother in Oxford, England and a teenager living in Brazil. That would fit with the group’s early goals.
The English hacker operates under the pseudonym “White” and “breachbase”. Investigators are aware that one of the core members is active on Telegram under the alias “WhiteDoxbin”. It is still unclear whether there is a connection between the names. It is also not yet known how many hacker attacks the boys were involved in.
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