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MaxLinear chipmaker became victim of Maze ransomware

MaxLinear, an American manufacturer of systems on a chip (SoC), reported about a cyberattack. MaxLinear became the victim of Maze ransomware operators.

The attack was discovered on May 24. During the attack were encrypted data of some computer systems of the company.

“We immediately turned off all systems, hired third-party cybersecurity experts to participate in our investigation, contacted law enforcement agencies and worked to safely restore the systems in such a way as to protect the information in our systems”, — said the manufacturer.

According to the results of the investigation, the criminals conducted an attack from April 15, 2020 to May 24, 2020. The cyberattack affected only some of the company’s systems.

On June 15, Maze operators released 10.3 GB of accounting and financial information from more than 1 TB of data allegedly stolen from MaxLinear.

According to company representatives, a data leak may include personal and financial information of employees, such as name, home address, corporate and personal mailing address, identification number, driver’s license number, financial account number, social security number, and date of birth information, place of work, compensation and benefits.

After the incident, the company reset the passwords of employees and notified law enforcement agencies. The company does not intend to pay the ransom to ransomware operators.

“MaxLinear’s internal information technology team, supplemented by a leading cyber defense firm, has been actively taking steps to contain and assess this incident. The ransomware attack has not materially affected our production and shipment capabilities, and order fulfillment has continued without material interruption. We have no plans to satisfy attacker’s monetary demands”, – reported in the official statement of the company.

The company reports that its specialists managed to restore some of the affected systems and equipment, and this work continues. Although MaxLinear incurred and will incur additional costs because of a criminal investigation and rectification of the situation, currently the company does not expect the incident to have a significant or negative impact on operating expenses.

MaxLinear insurance will cover expenses due to cybersecurity incidents with applicable deductibles and policy limits. The company also interacts with relevant law enforcement agencies.

Maze seems to be becoming the 2020 criminal superstar: we only recently reported that Maze ransomware operators leaked data on Costa Rica bank customers, and even earlier, Maze attacked medical company, which is testing vaccine for COVID-19.

Be extremely careful, follow the recommendations on digital security, do not open letters from unfamiliar and unverified contacts.

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James Brown

Technology news writer and part-time security researcher. Author of how-to articles related to Windows computer issue solving.

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  • […] the scale of their attacks is sometimes exaggerated). In recent weeks, hackers have claimed that chip-making company MaxLinear and IT giant Cognizant have been their […]

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