Samsung logo on a building in Milan (Babak / Unsplash photo)
South American hacker group Lapsus $ revealed on Friday that it had managed to obtain valuable inside information from Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, which could endanger millions of users of the company’s Galaxy devices.
According to a report on the Bleeping Computer website, the hackers were able to obtain several types of information from Samsung, including the source code of the secure environment for managing the confidential information on the company’s smartphones; The source code of the biometric identification algorithms; The boot code of the devices, which allows them to be hacked and gain complete control over them; A source code for Samsung’s servers and services, which allows them to disrupt their activities, create their forgeries that will trap users and hack into the accounts of users of the company’s devices; And even confidential information about Qualcomm chips, on which many devices are based not only by Samsung but also by other manufacturers, endangering billions of users around the world who own smartphones with these chips.
For no apparent reason, the hackers decided to use the information in an uncharacteristic way: Unlike the previous hack of the same chip about two weeks ago by chip giant Nvidia, the hackers sent the company a ransom demand in the form of unlocking its graphics accelerators to facilitate crypto and support Linux-based computers. This time, the hackers simply published all the information they stole – 190 GB – using the Torrent pirated download protocol, so that anyone who knows what to look for can download the information and use it. Therefore, it is extremely important that owners of Galaxy devices be especially wary of suspicious activity on their devices in the near future, until the company finds a way to prevent the misuse of the stolen information.
The Korea Herald newspaper contacted Samsung, which did not deny the break-in and said it “appreciated the situation”.
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