A ransomware attack on Apple shows the future of cybercrime

THE ANNOUNCEMENT was timed to spoil the party. On April 20th, at its “Spring Loaded” event, Apple unveiled a clutch of new iGizmos, from purple smartphones and a new set-top TV box to “AirTags”, small connected trackers designed to help people find whatever objects they attach them to.

On the same day a group of hackers going by the name of REvil declared that they had broken into Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese company that assembles several Apple gadgets, and made off with what they claimed was sensitive data. The group claimed that Quanta had declined to pay a ransom for the stolen information, and addressed Apple directly instead. The hackers posted several sets of schematic diagrams of Apple laptops to their blog, and suggested that, if the mighty tech company did not want more secrets revealed, it should “buy back” the stolen data by May 1st.