Technology

Hackers Try to Extort Apple After Stealing Files From Manufacturer

The high-profile attempt comes as the Biden administration strategizes about how to fight ransomware

In this April 22, 2021, file photo, the Apple logo lights up its "green leaves" outside the Apple Store on Nanjing Road in response to the 52nd Earth Day in Shanghai.
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A hacker gang has stolen files from a company that manufactures Apple products and is openly trying to extort the tech giant in exchange for not leaking them, NBC News reports.

Apple declined to comment on whether it intended to pay, but the hackers' extortion letter to the company remained online Thursday night.

The company that was hacked, Quanta, is a Taiwanese manufacturer that makes a range of computer products, including the Mac Pro.

The hackers, who posted the extortion letter and three sample technical files to their blog on the dark web, are among more than a dozen prolific cyber-criminal organizations that in recent years have steadily hacked targets around the world, encrypting victims' files or threatening to publish them and demanding a ransom, usually in bitcoin.

Though U.S. law enforcement closely tracks the hackers behind the ransomware gangs, the organizations tend to operate in countries that don't extradite to the U.S., particularly Russia, law enforcement agents say, making it essentially impossible to physically stop them unless the hackers travel internationally.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com

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