Major electronics manufacturer Foxconn has confirmed that it was recently targeted in a cyberattack that impacted some of its factories. The company is known for making devices and components for several global tech brands, including Apple, Google, Nvidia, and Sony, among others. The ransomware gang called Nitrogen has claimed responsibility for the attack. The group allegedly breached Foxconn’s systems and later posted the stolen data on its dark web leak site.
According to TechCrunch, Foxconn said that some of its North American facilities were affected by the incident, but added ‘the affected factories are currently resuming normal production.’
The hackers claim to have stolen more than 11 million files from Foxconn’s systems. The stolen data allegedly includes confidential information from Foxconn customers, including Apple, Dell, Google, Intel, Nvidia and others.
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To prove themselves, the hackers even published samples of stolen data that contain product schematics, guidelines and even some financial documents.
Nitrogen is believed to be operating a double-extortion ransomware strategy. In this type of attack, hackers first steal sensitive files and then lock company systems by encrypting the data. Victims are then pressured to pay money both to regain access to their systems and to prevent the stolen files from being leaked online.
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At the moment, regular users and customers do not appear to be in danger. Most of the information allegedly stolen seems to be related to intellectual property and internal product design, rather than personal customer information.
Even if customer data is not directly exposed, attacks on major manufacturing partners like Foxconn still creates concerns around business security.
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