Notebook maker Compal suffers ransomware attack, but director denies

Compal, a Taiwanese manufacturer of hardware and notebooks – one of the largest in the world – that works for brands like Apple, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba, HP, and Fujitsu suffered a ransomware attack last Sunday (08), reports Yahoo Taiwan.

Compal officials noticed the malware earlier this Sunday (08) and shared the images of the message with Yahoo Taiwan newsroom. According to ZDNet, which analyzed the message, the ransomware is believed to be of the DoppelPaymer type.

Those responsible for the DoppelPaymer virus, created in February this year, a website where they share the encrypted data of their victims, in case they do not pay for the ransom, strategy used by the group Maze, who recently announced his retirement.

Compal employees were instructed to perform backups of machines and systems that were not affected.

Taiwanese media revealed that the incident affected about 30% of the company’s operations. However, the general manager from Compal, Qingxiong Lu, denies that it is a ransomware attack, but confirms security breach.

Sought by the Taiwanese press, Qingxiong Lu, guarantees that the breach reached only the company’s internal office and the production of hardware (service it provides for several other companies) was not affected.

Qingxiong Lu says that Compal’s operations are expected to return to normal today, Monday (09), when employees finish restoring internal systems.

Sources: ZDNet; Yahoo Taiwan.