MSI becomes victim of ransomware attack following ACER

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Taiwanese PC company MSI (short for Micro-Star International) has officially verified that their system is under a cyber attack.

After detecting “network anomalies”, the company implemented “immediately” initiated measures to handle the problem and also notified law enforcement agencies. However, MSI did not disclose specifics when the attack occurred or whether exclusive information, such as source codes leaked out.

“Currently, the affected systems are progressively returning to normal process, with no significant impact on financial operations”, according to a brief statement from the company.

According to a regulatory filing with the Stock Exchange of Taiwan, enhanced controls over the network and infrastructure have been implemented to ensure data security. MSI encourages users to only download firmware/BIOS updates from their official website, rather than from any other sources.

Money Message, a new ransomware group, has recently added the company into their victim list. Late last month, the threat was brought to Zscaler’s attention.

In the analysis published by Cyble, the experts noted: “This group applies a double blackmail technique to attack the victims, involving filtering before encrypting the victim’s data”. “Unless ransom is paid, they will upload data to their breach website.”

The development occurs one month after Acer disclosed their own mistakes leading to 160GB of secret information theft. Such data was advertised on March 6th 2023, for sale on BreachForums and is now defunct.

According to The Hacker News.