Lapsus$, the group that hacked Nvidia, goes after Samsung

(Image Courtesy: Reuters)

Ransomware gang Lapsus$, which recently targeted US chipmaker Nvidia, has now posted sensitive data obtained from South Korean giant Samsung’s servers.

According to a report by Bleeping Computer, the anonymous group said it managed to breach Samsung servers and published nearly 190GB of sensitive data online, including original source codes for the company’s applications and data related to various projects.

In the week gone by, Lapsus$ was also responsible for the massive security breach at Nvidia, which hit back at it.

Lapsus demanded that Nvidia push a firmware update to its 30-series graphics processing unit (GPU) that removes the limitations on cryptocurrency mining on the cards.

At a market cap of about $600 billion, Nvidia is the most valuable chipmaker in the United States. It is known for its GPUs that enhance videogaming experiences and advanced computer simulations, a Reuters report said.

Also Read: Hackers who stole data from Nvidia's servers want the company to remove Lite Hash Rate from their GPUs

Samsung has, so far, not disclosed the severity of the breach but several officials said they were assessing the situation.

Unlike the Nvidia breach, where Lapsus$ demanded the removal of Lite Hash Rates, or LHR, from the 30-series GPUs, no demands have been set forward for Samsung.

It is also not clear whether Samsung or Lapsus$ have made contact.

LHR was introduced to Nvidia's graphic cards as a way to combat purchases of the GPUs in bulk by crypto-miners who viewed the company's cards as an efficient way to mine cryptocurrency.

This led to worldwide shortages of GPUs. LHR cut the efficiency of mining on the GPUs by 50 percent to make the cards less desirable for cryptocurrency.

Also Read: 'The Great Tech Game' excerpt: No global consensus on whether and when cyber-incidents constitute an act of war 

Lapsus$ published source code and design documents from Nvidia online, the repository allegedly also includes details of nearly 71,000 company employees.

In an unusual move, Nvidia attempted a hack of its own on Lapsus$ servers. This was verified by the group, which was enraged, and posted, "Today we woke up and found Nvidia S*** had attacked our machine with ransomware," the post went on to say that "Luckily we had a backup but why the **** they think they can connect to our private machine and install ransomware."