A hacker group has claimed to have breached the servers of Acer India, with approximately 60GB of sensitive data belonging to several million of the company’s customers being leaked online.
Known as Desorden, the group said it had stolen customer information, corporate data, financial data, and information related to recent company audits, according to a post on a popular hacking forum, seen by Privacy Affairs researchers.
The hackers said that the breach includes data on several million Acer customers, mostly from India. It appears to have taken place on 5 October, as this is the most recent date listed in the leaked databases.
Desorden also said that it will give Acer access to the database to verify the data and prove the breach is real. A sample of the data released for free, which included information on over 10,000 individuals, was found to be accurate and genuine by researchers at Privacy Affairs, who were able to make contact with some of those affected.
The group has said that data belonging to several million more Acer customers will be released for a fee at a later date.
“We have recently detected an isolated attack on our local after-sales service system in India,” an Acer spokesperson told IT Pro. “Upon detection, we immediately initiated our security protocols and conducted a full scan of our systems. We are notifying all potentially affected customers in India.”
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The spokesperson added that the incident has been reported to local law enforcement and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, and there has been no material impact to the company’s operations and business continuity.
In March this year, Acer fell victim to a $50 million ransomware attack carried out by the notorious ransomware gang REvil. The group announced the Acer breach on its website where it presented images of allegedly stolen files, including financial spreadsheets, bank communications, and bank balances. The breach was believed to be linked to the Microsoft Exchange cyber attack, which was carried out by at least ten hacker groups.
