Galaxy source code leaking out in the ether

Hood = hacker. © iStock.

South Korean tech giant Samsung confirmed that it fell victim to hackers who broke into its systems and allegedly made off with source code for its Galaxy phones. The break-in was first reported earlier this month and a hacker group named Lapsus$ has claimed responsibility. This group, which also recently hacked Nvidia, shared three torrent files totaling nearly 190GB of data, including source code that Samsung uses for encryption and biometric unlocking functions on its Galaxy devices. The company has not confirmed the nature of the stolen information but insisted that no personal data associated with employees or clients was lifted.

In the case of the Nvidia break-in, the Lapsus$ gang attempted to blackmail the company by threatening to release the stolen data online if Nvidia didn’t remove parameters limiting cryptocurrency mining on some of its graphics cards. The group already leaked some of the stolen data such as email addresses and Nvidia employees’ credentials and threatened to spread 1TB of additional data if Nvidia didn’t go along with the blackmail.

⇨ The Verge, James Vincent, “Samsung confirms hackers stole Galaxy source code.”

⇨ The Register, Gareth Corfield, “Lapsus$ extortionists dump Samsung data online, chaebol confirms security breach.”

2022-03-07