Laptop maker Compal hit by ransomware attack
DoppelPaymer hackers reportedly ordered the company to hand over almost £13 million in ransom
Laptop manufacturer Compal has been hit by a ransomware attack which saw attackers demanding a ransom of close to £13 million.
Compal, which is based in Taiwan, is considered the second-largest laptop manufacturer in the world after Quanta Computers. It is known for handling the design and production of monitors, tablets, and television screens for tech giants such as Apple, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba, HP, and Fujitsu.
However, its high-ranking status did not stop the company from falling victim to a ransomware attack over the weekend.
Taiwanese media were quick to report that Compal had been hit by a cyber attack. At first, the laptop manufacturer denied that it was being blackmailed by cyber criminals and blamed the issue on an "abnormality" in their office automation system. However, BleepingComputer managed to obtain the ransom note and confirmed that the company had in fact suffered a DoppelPaymer ransomware attack.
The publication also found that, according to the DoppelPaymer Tor payment site linked in the ransom note, Compal had been asked to pay 1,100 Bitcoins, which is around £12,906,473, to receive a decryptor.
Doppelmayer has been previously linked to the recent attack on Newcastle University, as well as the attacks on Elon Musk's companies SpaceX and Tesla earlier this year.
The group behind DoppelPaymer also reportedly offer their services for others to use, similar to the 'ransomware as a service' (RaaS) operation run by the Netwalker group, which has reportedly made over $29 million since March.
RELATED RESOURCE
Cyber security automation for dummies
Tips for automating security responses and optimising your security ecosystem
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.
ITWire reported that Compal likely hasn't yet responded to the ransom note, as the group behind DoppelPaymer have not listed the ransomware attack on their dark web site. It is not yet known whether the laptop manufacturer is planning to pay the ransom.
-
Why patching velocity matters as Claude Mythos supercharges vulnerability discoveryFrontier AI models such as Claude Mythos and GPT-5.5 make patching more urgent than ever. How can firms increase the velocity at which they apply fixes and mitigations?
-
The UK is running on fumes as data center build-outs can’t keep pace with demandNews The country's vacancy rate has dropped sharply, with much of the pipeline early-stage and uncertain
-
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
-
Ransomware negotiator sentenced for role in major cyber crime groupNews Deniss Zolotarjovs was a key player in a group associated with Conti
-
Threat actors ditch ‘spray and pray’ attacks in shift to targeted exploitationNews A dip in ransomware volumes points to a more targeted approach focused on vulnerability exploitation
-
Security leaders overconfident about ransomware recovery
News Few manage to recover all their data, and many experience business disruption
-
German authorities want your help finding the hackers behind GandCrab and REvilNews Daniil Maksimovich Shchukin and Anatoly Sergeevitsch Kravchuk are believed to have made millions from ransomware as a service schemes
-
The rise of teen hackers ‘makes for a good headline’, but cyber crime activities peak later in life
News With family responsibilities and mortgages to pay, it's not teenagers dishing out malware or carrying out cyber extortion
