Apple supplier Foxconn confirms ransomware attack affects North American factories

Narrative reports that Foxconn has admitted that some of its North American factories were “under attack” in recent days after the Nitrogen ransomware group claimed to have stolen 8 TB of data from the company. Here are the details.

Foxconn successfully attacked again

according to NarrativeA ransomware group known as Nitrogen claims to have stolen 8TB of data from Foxconn, one of Apple’s key manufacturing partners for iPhones and other devices.

Narrative says:

A ransomware group is trying to rip off electronics giant Foxconn, claiming to have stolen 8TB of data from the company, including schematics and project details from customers including Dell, Google, Apple and Nvidia.

This is not the first ransomware case involving Foxconn in recent years. For example, the Foxconn facility in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in 2020 was attacked which encrypted servers, stole data, and contained a demand for bitcoin worth approximately $34.6 million at the time.

while Narrative‘s report, it appears that its Mount Pleasant (WI) plant is among the affected plants this time. Cybersec Guru (via AppleInsider):

The outage first came to light on Friday, May 1, when staff at the Mount Pleasant campus reported a complete network failure. There was no Wi-Fi at 7:00 am. By 11:00 a.m., the outage had spread to the main plant infrastructure.

“We were told to turn off our computers and under no circumstances log in again,” said one employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The time card terminals were dead. We were just filling out paper time sheets to track our hours.”

AppleInsider he says In addition to the Wisconsin plant, a Foxconn facility in Houston, Texas also appears to be affected.

The site also reports that while Nitrogen has published a number of sample files it claims to have taken from Foxconn, Apple-related material does not appear in them:

It’s unclear if any of the files are directly related to current or future Apple projects. Given that Foxconn’s Mount Pleasant facility primarily manufactures televisions and data servers, not Apple devices, this ultimately isn’t much of a surprise.

The attack is the latest in a series of cyberattacks and extortion attempts that have hit Foxconn facilities in recent years. Here it is Narrative again:

The idea of ​​Foxconn as a prime target is not only conceptual. The company has faced a number of extortion attempts, including an attack on its Mexican facility in December 2020 where the DoppelPaymer ransomware group demanded 1,804 Bitcoins (worth about $34 million at the time). The LockBit group struck another Foxconn facility in Mexico in May 2022 and halted production. LockBit recently attacked its 2024 subsidiary, Foxsemicon Integrated Technology, with allegations of sabotage and data breaches.

Foxconn, for its part, reported, although it did not confirm the scale of the incident Narrative The affected factories are “currently resuming normal production,” he said.

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