A ransomware group called REvil is threatening to release "massive amounts of confidential drawings and gigabytes of personal data" stolen from a Taiwanese laptop manufacturer; The Record reports that REvil is demanding $50 million as ransom for the stolen files. for the stolen files.

REvil posted a screenshot of an Apple MacBook on the dark web portal on Wednesday, demanding Apple return the confidential files. According to the posting, REvil obtained the material from Quanta Computer, a large manufacturer of laptops for Apple and other high-tech companies including Lenovo and HP.

"Quanta has made it clear to us that they do not care about customer or employee data, thereby allowing us to disclose and sell all the data we have ...... We recommend that Apple buy back all available data by May 1," the group said. The post threatens to release more Apple files every day until the ransom is paid.

Quanta posted an ambiguous statement about the incident on its website, saying that its security team "worked with outside IT experts to respond to a cyber attack against a small number of Quanta's servers" and that it was in contact with the appropriate authorities. The company claimed that its business operations were "not materially affected."

REvil, also known as Sodinokibi, is a Russian hacking group. Over the past two years, it has repeatedly targeted celebrities such as Lady Gaga and large companies such as Acer and pharmaceutical company Pierre Fabre in ransomware attacks; in an October 2020 interview, the group claimed to be making over $100 million annually from ransomware attacks. This amount is apparently unverifiable.

The group sent a threatening letter on Wednesday, timed to coincide with Apple's launch event for its new iMac and iPad tablets, and attached blueprints for its iMacs; the files REvil stole likely contain schematics for several upcoming unannounced products It seems - those who have seen the leaked documents so far have found evidence of designs for an upcoming MacBook Pro with more USB ports.

Apple told The Record that it is investigating the incident, but has so far not said how it will handle the ransom.