Acer Falls Victim to Ransomware Attack, Hackers Demand $50 Million

According to Bleeping Computer (via Engadget), a hacker collective known as REvil has gained access to Acer’s private company network and is holding sensitive data hostage for $50 million USD.

The ransomware attack may have been orchestrated by exploiting one of four Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities that Microsoft recently publicized the existence of and also released patches for.

REvil announced on the dark web earlier this week that the group had compromised Acer, and even posted a few images for proof. This is the same group that was behind the $6 million USD ransomware attack on Travelex last year.

In a conversation between the hacker collective and an Acer representative witnessed by Bleeping Computer, the group offered Acer a 20% discount on what is quite possibly one of the largest ransomware demands to date if the company ponied up by March 17.

As things stand, computer company Acer has until March 28 to pay the ransom before REvil leaks all the data it stole online.

Acer, which reported nearly $3 billion USD in revenue for Q4 2020 alone, has lent no authenticity to reports of an attack.

Instead, in a statement to Bleeping Computer, Acer said that it has “reported recent abnormal situations observed to the relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities in multiple countries”.

Ransomeware attacks are no joke and it’ll be interesting how Acer will handle this network breach.