Apple supplier Foxconn hit by £25.5m ransomware attack
The attack, which reportedly took place on 29 November, has been claimed by the DoppelPaymer group
Apple supplier Foxconn has reportedly fallen victim to a ransomware attack, with hackers demanding $34 million (£25.5 million) in Bitcoin from the manufacturing giant, according to BleepingComputer.
According to the publication, cyber criminals targeted Foxconn’s CTBG MX facility in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, which is used to assemble and ship Foxconn’s offerings to regions across South and North America.
The attack, which reportedly took place on 29 November, has been claimed by DoppelPaymer hackers. The notorious group is also responsible for the recent ransomware attacks on Newcastle University and laptop maker Compal.
What is ransomware? Best ransomware removal tools The top 12 password-cracking techniques used by hackers
According to the ransom note obtained by BleepingComputer, the DoppelPaymer group has demanded a ransom of 1804.0955 bitcoins from Foxconn, which converts to around £25.5 million.
DoppelPaymer confirmed to BleepingComputer that they had attacked Foxconn’s Ciudad Juárez facility but denied having targeted the whole company. They admitted to encrypting about 1,200 servers, stealing 100GB of unencrypted files, as well as deleting between 20 and 30TB of backups.
"We encrypted NA segment, not whole Foxconn, it's about 1200-1400 servers, and not focused on workstations. They also had about 75TB's of misc backups, what we were able to - we destroyed (approx 20-30TB)," DoppelPaymer told the Bleeping Computer.
IT Pro contacted Foxconn for comment but has not heard back at the time of publication. Its CTBG MX facility’s website has reportedly been down since the day of the attack.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2026 report - the leading resource for IT decision-maker insight on priorities and investment areas in AI, security and more.
It is not known whether the Taiwanese company, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, is planning to pay the ransom.
Weeks before the attack, DoppelPaymer targeted fellow Taiwanese manufacturer Compal, which handles the design and production of monitors, tablets, and television screens for tech giants such as Apple, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba, HP, and Fujitsu.
According to the DoppelPaymer Tor payment site linked in the ransom note, the company had been asked to pay 1,100 Bitcoins, around £12,906,473, to receive a decryptor.
Compal spokesperson Lu Qingxiong told Taiwanese business news website UDN that the company had informed its suppliers that the incident was likely to affect some projects in the short term but added that most of the issues had been resolved.
Having only graduated from City University in 2019, Sabina has already demonstrated her abilities as a keen writer and effective journalist. Currently a content writer for Drapers, Sabina spent a number of years writing for ITPro, specialising in networking and telecommunications, as well as charting the efforts of technology companies to improve their inclusion and diversity strategies, a topic close to her heart.
Sabina has also held a number of editorial roles at Harper's Bazaar, Cube Collective, and HighClouds.
-
The OpenAI and Anthropic containment breaches are a bit spooky, but also quite sillyOpinion An AI leaving notes to future versions of itself is pure sci-fi; forgetting to lock down an environment is prosaic
-
Bringing data to the heart of AISponsored AI is changing our approach to data, find out how HPE Alletra Storage can help your business
-
Companies are still paying ransoms to cyber criminals despite official adviceNews A Proofpoint survey found evolving ransomware techniques and the use of AI is exacerbating the situation for victims
-
This one cyber crime group accounted for nearly a fifth of all ransomware attacks in JuneNews The Gentlemen, a ransomware a service operator, now accounts for 17% of published attacks
-
Working with the enemy: Ransomware negotiator-turned cyber criminal jailed after working with hackers to extort clientsNews Angelo Martino was supposed to be negotiating on behalf of victims, but was secretly working for ransomware operators
-
Hackers are posing as Interpol to target small businesses – here's what you need to knowNews Small businesses are warned to think twice before clicking on links
-
‘Every hour ransomware goes undetected drastically increases its potential blast radius’: Hackers are breaching networks and laying low for longer – and nearly half of firms don’t realize until data is stolenNews An ExtraHop survey found more intrusions are going undetected, leading to longer dwell times
-
Ransomware cartels are fragmenting into volatile splinter groups, warns Met Police cyber chiefNews Commoditized "cyber crime bazaars" and AI data mining are forcing law enforcement to rewrite its playbook
-
New ransomware threat group, The Gentlemen, has become one of the most active ransomware operators, accounting for 10% of all attacksNews NTT researchers warn that the RaaS group is leveraging SystemBC malware to establish covert tunnelling, evade detection, and support rapid lateral movement across enterprise environments
-
Instructure chose to a pay ransom following the Canvas cyber attack – research shows more than half of security leaders would follow suitAnalysis Opting to pay ransoms creates huge risks for enterprises – you’re relying on the word of criminals