Apple faces $50 million ransom demand over product data

Apple is facing a $50 million ransom demand from a notorious Russian hacker group called REvil. The company was attacked after Quanta, which is a Taiwan-based supplier, reported a data breach on one of its servers that contained data about upcoming Apple products.

9To5Mac reports that the hacker group has offered proof, which includes schematics of new and upcoming Apple products, by releasing some of the documents that it has on the internet. The documents that the hacker group has released so far includes specifications of the upcoming Apple Silicon-powered MacBook Pro bearing codenames J314 and J316. The leaked details are in line with the reports, which suggested that the new MacBook Pro will come with an SD card slot and an HDMI port among other things.

As per a separate report by MySmartPrice, REvil posted the data from the Quanta server on Happy Blog, which is a dark web marketplace that it runs. The hacker group then asked Quanta to pay a ransom of $50 million, but when the company refused, it moved to Apple threatening to release sensitive commercial information pertaining to the company. Now, the hacker group is threatening to release more data if its demands are not met by a deadline of May 1.

It is worth noting that Apple is not the only target of the company. The publication says that earlier REvil has posted information belonging to Acer India. The list included the company’s pay orders, commercial documents and bank documents.