In April of this year, a ransomware group called REvil managed to leak blueprints of Apple’s MacBook Pro line and later threatened to leak more data if its monetary demands were not met. Fortunately, thanks to a joint effort, the group was taken offline thanks to a hacking process.
The Joint Effort Hacked Into REvil’s Infrastructure, Taking Control of the Group’s Servers
According to Reuters, the joint effort aimed solely to take down REvil comprised of the FBI, Secret Service, U.S. Cyber Command, along with unnamed foreign governments. Together, these units hacked into REvil’s infrastructure and took down certain servers that forced the ransomware group to go offline.
“The FBI, in conjunction with Cyber Command, the Secret Service and like-minded countries, have truly engaged in significant disruptive actions against these groups. REvil was top of the list.”
Officials said the attack used the encryption software called DarkSide, which was developed by REvil associates. This joint attack will also prevent the group from carrying out their own ransomware operations on other companies. Earlier this year, perhaps the highest level of notoriety attained by REvil was when it stole leaked MacBook Pro blueprints from Apple supplier Quanta and gave the manufacturer until April 27 to pay $50 million or else the amount would reach $100 million, along with more product leaks.
Quanta not just undertook MacBook Pro orders, but was also responsible for mass producing Apple Watch models and has a long client list which includes Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others. However, it was not confirmed is REvil stole future laptop blueprints of Quanta’s other partners. The ransomware gang claimed it had leaked over a dozen schematics and designs of the MacBook components on its dark web leak site.
REvil was also responsible for a similar attack on Acer’s servers, leaking some of the information and demanding the same $50 million amount in exchange.
News Source: Reuters
