Nijmegen chipmaker hit by ransomware attack; Hackers threatening to leak trade secrets
The Nijmegen-based chip maker Nexperia has been hit by a ransomware attack. The hackers say they stole hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data and are threatening to publish trade secrets if Nexperia doesn’t pay a ransom, RTL Nieuws reports.
Nexperia, known for chips used in telephones and cars, confirmed to the broadcaster that it was hacked last month but would say nothing further due to the ongoing investigation.
The hackers claim to have gained access to many hundreds of folders with Nexperia’s customer data, including data from SpaceX, Apple, and Huawei. As proof, they published dozens of these confidential documents on the dark web. RTL said it verified those documents.
Bram Nauta, a professor of chip design at the University of Twente, thinks the stolen data can be a big problem for the chip maker. “Nexperia’s knowledge is not necessarily in the chips because they are relatively simple, but in the production process of these parts. The machines used to make these chips are extremely secret, you don’t want those secrets on the streets.”
Nexperia, which was acquired by the Chinese company Wingtech Technology in 2019, focuses on simpler chips for everyday products. It produces over 100 billion of these chips, used worldwide in everything from smartphones to refrigerators and vacuums, every year. Last year, Nieuwsuur reported that Nexperia chips were also found in Russian military drones and missiles.
