From Bloomberg's "Apple Targeted in $50 Million Ransomware Hack of Supplier Quanta" posted early Wednesday:
As Apple Inc. was revealing its newest line of iPads and flashy new iMacs on Tuesday, one of its primary suppliers was enduring a ransomware attack from a Russian operator claiming to have stolen blueprints of the U.S. company’s latest products.
The ransomware group REvil, also known as Sodinokibi, published a blog on its darkweb site early on Tuesday in which it claimed to have infiltrated the computer network of Quanta Computer Inc. The Taiwan-based company is a key supplier to Apple, manufacturing mostly Macbooks...
By early on April 20, REvil’s ‘Happy Blog’ -- a site where the cartel publicly names and shames victims in hopes of coaxing ransom payment -- declared Quanta its latest victim. In their post, also reviewed by Bloomberg, the hackers claim they’d waited to disclose the Quanta compromise until the date of Apple’s latest big reveal, contending the parts supplier had expressed no interest in paying to recover the stolen data.
By the time Apple’s product launch was over, REvil had posted schematics for a new laptop, including 15 images detailing the guts of what appears to be a Macbook designed as recently as March 2021, according to the documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
REvil is now attempting to shake-down Apple in its effort to profit off the stolen data. They’ve asked Apple to pay their ransom by May 1, as was first reported by Bleeping Computer. Until then, the hackers will continue to post new files every day, REvil said on its blog.
My take: I suspect we'll never know how this is resolved.
As someone on Slashdot pointed out, there’s not that much to be gained from a schematic, particularly since once the machine is out, Teardown sites will provide pictures, etc.
It also takes its supplier to task for not protecting Apple’s proprietary data sufficiently.
Other than that, good luck matching the M1 chip, which is the source of a LOT of the redesign. Check out the completely redesigned speakers on the iMac, for one. Unbelievable! And only possible because of the M1.
Amy Klobuchar says Apple and Google are “two ecosystems controlling the market,” and “They operate as gatekeepers”. If we’re talking about mobile phones, that’s true on a very general scale, but it doesn’t take much getting into the weeds to see the huge differences between “the two ecosystems” and how the “operate as gatekeepers”.
As to the “gatekeepers” claim, if they were, this past election cycle wouldn’t have been so contentious. You know Congress didn’t, and won’t, do anything to make it better. To many of our elected officials are a part of the problem to be part of the cure.
I did note that Tim Cook begged off. Maybe that put the Congress-critters’ noses out of joint….
“Analysis: Apple made a big mistake with its new iMacs” by David Goldman, CNN Business
“…The only problem is you have to look at your new iMac when you’re using it.
Ugh, those colors. It comes in Easter egg blue, green, yellow, pink, orange, purple and (thankfully) silver. If the colors weren’t bold enough, Apple added sorta faded complementary colors to the stand, which is an … interesting design choice.
Even if you’re a pastel fan (or you wisely choose silver), you won’t be saved from the bizarre look of the new iMac. That weird chin that’s been a feature of the iMac since 2004 is still there, giving the new iMac a decidedly last-generation look. And the new version ditched the Apple logo, making that odd rectangle at the bottom of your screen look even stranger….”
Really? You personally don’t like the color scheme? That’s the “big mistake”? Talk about stretching the truth just to get clicks. Which is, of course, the basic formula: Put something negative in your title and the Apple-haters will show up in droves.
But ethical journalism? Not by a long shot.
Then again, with all their cash Apple could send in its precision hitman. We saw him in action yesterday going after the M1. He comes outta south Alabama lookin’ for the Black Hat drivin’ a drop-top Cadillac. Black Hat tried to steal money from Tim. A hush fell over the Black Hat community & when the cuttin’ was done, the only part that wasn’t bloody was the soles of Black Hat’s feet; oh, and he was cut in about a hundred places & he was shot in a couple more & you better believe they sung a story bout’ the country boy from south Alabama: “… You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Tim.”