As Apple was revealing its newest line of iPad Pro, AirTags, and new iMac models on Tuesday, Quanta Computer, one of Apple’s primary assemblers, was hit with a ransomware attack from a Russian operator claiming to have stolen blueprints of the U.S. company’s upcoming products.
Kartikay Mehrotra for Bloomberg:
The ransomware group REvil, also known as Sodinokibi, published a blog on its darkweb site early on Tuesday in which it claimed to have infiltrated the computer network of Quanta Computer Inc. The Taiwan-based company is a key supplier to Apple, manufacturing mostly MacBooks.
Quanta acknowledged an attack without explaining if or how much of its data was stolen… By the time Apple’s product launch was over, REvil had posted schematics for a new laptop, including 15 images detailing the guts of what appears to be a MacBook designed as recently as March 2021, according to the documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
REvil is now attempting to shake-down Apple in its effort to profit off the stolen data. They’ve asked Apple to pay their ransom by May 1, as was first reported by Bleeping Computer. Until then, the hackers will continue to post new files every day, REvil said on its blog…
The images include specific component serial numbers, sizes and capacities detailing the many working parts inside of an Apple laptop. One of the images is signed by an Apple designer, John Andreadis and dated March 9, 2021.
MacDailyNews Note: The stolen MacBook Pro schematics confirm Apple’s plans to add more ports and restore MagSafe charging.