AMD has started working with law enforcement agencies after somebody accessed its servers without authorisation. The current suspects are supposedly known hacker group IntelBroker, but while the compromised data supposedly includes sensitive information, Team Red isn’t too worried.
The earliest reports came on June 17 from DarkWebInformer on X.com, and reportedly contained quite a chunk of data, according to Hackread. These include:
- ROMs
- Firmware
- Source code
- Property files
- Employee databases
- User IDs
- Job functions
- Email addresses
- Employment status
- First and last names
- Business phone numbers
- Customer databases
- Financial information
- Future AMD product plans
- Technical specification sheets
The perpetrators are currently holding the information for ransom, using untraceable cryptocurrencies to cover their tracks. It’s far from an empty attack, either. IntelBroker has a long history of targetting notable companies such as Home Depot, HSBC, Barclays Bank, and many more.
“We are aware of a cybercriminal organisation claiming to be in possession of stolen AMD data,” Team Red tells Reuters. “We are working closely with law enforcement officials and a third-party hosting partner to investigate the claim and the significance of the data.”
It then followed up with some words of reassurance, telling Bloomberg that “Based on our investigation, we believe a limited amount of information related to specifications used to assemble certain AMD products was accessed on a third-party vendor site. We do not believe this data breach will have a material impact on our business or operations.”
Of course, there’s no telling whether AMD is simply trying to save face as we don’t know the exact depth of this breach. It could reveal more about the upcoming best CPUs in its lineup or facilitate identity theft. Hopefully we’ll learn more once the chipmaker finishes its investigation.