It was only yesterday that the gang responsible for the ransomware announced that they had breached Acer’s security and shared some of its stolen files as evidence. These files include financial spreadsheets, banking assets and banking communications, as well as personal data for all of your staff.
Acer victim of biggest ransomware attack
As of yet, Acer has not provided a clear answer to this ransomware attack claimed by hacker group REvil, but they say they have “detected abnormal situations” in their computer systems. This is the brand’s official response, for now:
“Acer regularly monitors all of its computer systems and most of the attacks we receive are well defended. Companies like ours are under constant attack and we recently reported observed anomalous situations to law enforcement and data protection authorities in several countries.
“We are constantly improving our cybersecurity infrastructure to protect business continuity and the integrity of our information. We urge all businesses and organizations to adhere to security disciplines and best practices, and to be vigilant in the event of an anomaly in their network activity. “
Hours after Acer’s response, a capture of the message that shows the ransomware on the infected Acer computers was leaked, through which it was discovered that they were asking for no more or less than $ 50 million, $ 100 million. if they didn’t pay by March. 28. Obviously, this “payment” must be made in cryptocurrency, in this case using Motto
This requested sum of money represents the most expensive “ransom” known to date (the previous one was the Dairy Farm hack, also by REvil, in which they asked for 30 million), although apparently Acer is already in talks with the hacker team and they offered them a 20% discount if they make the payment before tomorrow, Wednesday. What generosity.
The importance of avoiding vulnerabilities
Computer security analysts analyzed the situation, and it appears that the problem stems from a vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft’s messaging system used internally by Acer. Apparently Microsoft fixed this vulnerability some time ago, but the Acer systems team did not update their Exchange servers to the latest version on time and they were unable to avoid the vulnerability. authorized by this ransomware.
No code is completely secure, but as soon as potential vulnerabilities are detected – whether hardware or software – we immediately work to fix them, and that’s why we are constantly receiving updates of all kinds. , whether for the operating system, for any type. program or game or for the firmware of our devices.
And it is that when it comes to security updates, it is better to install them as soon as possible to avoid these possible vulnerabilities, whatever they are, because as we said, no code is ‘is completely safe but if the vulnerabilities are at least addressed as they are discovered we will be as protected as possible.
