Gigabyte is the latest major PC maker to suffer a ransomware attack

Acer and Apple aren’t the only major PC brands suffering from ransomware attacks in recent times. Beeping computer and United Daily News report that Taiwanese company Gigabyte suffered a ransomware attack between August 3-4. The company only confirmed that it had shut down the IT infrastructure and that a handful of servers were affected, but there are indications the attack could have been worse.

According to Beeping computer sources, the RansomEXX extortion gang claimed to have stolen 112 GB of sensitive internal data as well as information from a code repository. This includes information on Intel and AMD chips as well as a debug document. The violation is known to have affected both the Gigabyte support page and parts of the Taiwanese page.

Gigabyte said he contacted law enforcement, but did not say whether he would pay the ransom.

RansomEXX started in 2018 as Defray, but was renamed in 2020 and targets increasingly high profile organizations including the Brazilian government, the Texas Department of Transportation, and Ecuador state-run telecommunications. It is not believed to be associated with the REvil group that attacked Acer as well as with Apple supplier Quanta.

It’s no surprise that PC makers are faced with these attacks. They not only have the money to pay ransoms, but a series of technological secrets that they are eager to protect. However, the series of attacks is still of concern. Besides the short-term financial blow, there are also fears that these attacks may disclose trade secrets that cause long-term damage.