Hacker Group Claims Responsibility for Acer Security Breach Affecting Millions of Users

Hacker group Desorden (Spanish for disorder) via a forum post claimed responsibility for a full-fledged hacking maneuver targeting Acer's server cluster in India. The hack, which took place on October 5th, led Desorden to claim it has obtained around 60 GB worth of sensitive data on millions of (mostly, but not exclusively) Indian citizens whose personal data was stored in Acer's servers.

The group has released a free "sneak peek" at part of the collected data, exposing customer information for ten thousand individuals. Personal data, corporate data, as well as sensitive accounts, financial and audit data have been compromised. Privacy Affairs, the source of the initial breach report dated October 13th, says that it has independently confirmed the data's accuracy for a number of affected customers, which includes login details of Acer retailers and distributors from India.

As is usually the case in affairs such as this, Desorden is now selling the remaining data to the highest bidder. The 10,000 individuals whose personal data was exposed are only meant to serve as proof of the data's accuracy, with all the potential negative implications for each and every one of the affected users. The hacking group claims that it will be providing Acer management the rights to verify all of the siphoned data. 

As for Desorden, this is the second claimed attack from the group during this month of October alone; they've also hacked SkyNet.com.my Malaysia Logistics, releasing the personal data of millions of clients. Desorden described its operations with an emphasis on chaos rather than the more usual profit/risk ratio of bad hackers, saying that "Desorden attacks on supply chains create higher level of disorder & chaos affecting many parties rather than the victim itself. If victim fails to pay, Desorden sells the data on black market in a few days."

Francisco Pires
Freelance News Writer

Francisco Pires is a freelance news writer for Tom's Hardware with a soft side for quantum computing.

  • pjmelect
    It a muses me to think that Indians are likly to get more Spam tellephone calls now, revenge is sweet.
    Reply