A group of hackers is laying claim over stolen blueprints for Apple products, threating to publish them unless monetary compensation is provided.
Claiming to hold Apple blueprints hostage paints a rather amusing image of a masked man pointing a gun at tied up pieces of paper, but I digress. As reported on by The Record Media, the hacker group REvil are taking responsibility for the attack, and demand money in exchange for maintaining Apple's secrets. And while further amusement could be garnered from the almost childishly villainous name the group has chosen to impose upon itself, we've got a story to cover. The group's source of information seems to be Quanta, a Taiwanese company that acts as an Apple supplier. Apparently, they were defenseless enough that the REvil easily snuck into their respective hard drives and desktops to obtain the relevant information.While that's all done with, what is the group asking for in terms of ransom? Well, that answer comes in the rather hefty form of $50 million. REvil apparently first chose to approach Quanta, who apparently rejected them out of the gate. Following that specific failure, the hackers went right to the source and asked Apple to fork over the amount. And while I hate to belabor a point, it again is borderline hilarious to watch these "threatening" hackers attempt to blackmail a company, hear the words "no", and then simply moving on.
However, that very "no" may have produced some consequences of its own. Schematics have been published by REvil for what appear to be older Macbooks and the Apple Watch. From an outsider perspective, it's rather difficult to surmise whether or not these leaks are authentic or not, but it must be noted that Quanta has confirmed that their system was breached by outside forces. The company did not specify the nature of the breach or its consequences. Apple itself has only chosen to state that the matter was being looked into.
For its part, REvil has given Apple a deadline of May 1st to comply with the group's wishes. The hackers have also threatened to dole out and leak more and more data each day until the ransom money is not handed over. A statement by the group also adds that negotiations were underway with other tech companies for the exchange of the blueprints, which would manifest unless Apple gives into its demands.
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