Saturday, February 26th 2022

NVIDIA has Allegedly Been Hacked, Internal Systems Compromised

According to several reports in various media, NVIDIA has been hacked and several key systems, such as email and its internal developer tools have been down for the past few days. According to CRN, NVIDIA is investigating "an incident" and the company issued the following statement to the publication. "Our business and commercial activities continue uninterrupted. We are still working to evaluate the nature and scope of the event and don't have any additional information to share at this time."

In a regulatory filing back in October 2021, NVIDIA seemingly warned its shareholders of a future attack on the company of some kind. NVIDIA claimed that it's hard to protect against attacks, as the attacks are getting more "prevalent and sophisticated". The filing went on to say "Our efforts to prevent and overcome these and similar challenges could increase our expenses and may not be successful. We may experience interruptions, delays, cessation of service and loss of existing or potential customers." Based on media reports, it's currently not known whether any data has been stolen or damaged and it appears that the attacker(s) haven't been identified.
Update: According to vx-underground, it's a South American "extortion group" by the name LAPSUS$ that's behind the hack. Based on screenshots provided by vx-underground, NVIDIA has allegedly hacked LAPSUS$ back and encrypted the data that was stolen. Unfortunately for NVIDIA, it seems like LAPSUS$ had backups of the data. The group claims to be sitting on around 1 TB of data from the hack.

Update 2: Further details about NVIDIA's retaliation on the hackers has popped up and it would appear that NVIDIA managed to access and encrypt the data through its own VPN. This seems to have been possible due to the fact that it was a VM image of an NVIDIA system that was being used. In other words, NVIDIA didn't hack the hackers, but rather accessed a VM image of one of their own systems and encrypted the data on said VM. Unfortunately for NVIDIA, LAPSUS$ claims to have backups of the VM image and data.
Sources: CRN, @vxunderground, @vxunderground
Add your own comment

64 Comments on NVIDIA has Allegedly Been Hacked, Internal Systems Compromised

#51
mechtech
zlobbyI like you, @Jism. You seem to have some understanding of it.

For the lesser informed here - once there is an APT in place, it's a matter of time and patience to get what you want.
My negative bank account? ;)
Posted on Reply
#52
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
zlobbyIDK, if only they were putting more effort on developing secure solutions instead of telemetry and ways to scam buyers?
More telemetry
Posted on Reply
#53
OC-Ghost
Good news: nVidia network security&policy is so good, you need to copy a system to get access.
Bad news: Apparently part of nVidia doesn't or didn't force encryption on devices attached to corporate, beginner mistakes.
Posted on Reply
#54
zlobby
mechtechMy negative bank account? ;)
You won't believe what an once empty bank account can do if it suddenly receives a large transfer of funds. Just like this, out of the blue.

Maybe the incoming money are linked to some very bad people, say terrorists or whatever, and then you need to explain it all. Only that you can't. Now you can only play someone else's game.

Posted on Reply
#55
DeathtoGnomes
zlobbyonce there is an APT in place, it's a matter of time and patience to get what you want
APT? Apartment? :p Already have one! :laugh:
eidairaman1More telemetry
yea to track hackers better :roll:
Posted on Reply
#56
zlobby
DeathtoGnomesAPT? Apartment? :p Already have one! :laugh:
Advanced persitent threat. My bad.
Posted on Reply
#57
mechtech
zlobbyYou won't believe what an once empty bank account can do if it suddenly receives a large transfer of funds. Just like this, out of the blue.

Maybe the incoming money are linked to some very bad people, say terrorists or whatever, and then you need to explain it all. Only that you can't. Now you can only play someone else's game.

Been there done that lol. Did a short stint overseas mining. Worked 12-hr shifts whole month and was paid monthly. I gave my banker heads up though and sure enough first paycheck there was questions but he took care of it. Actually happened twice. After wedding when deposited all the gifts got a call from bank. Told them was wedding gifts and then they were like hey would you like any help investing this? I said will be 0 once pay off the wedding lol
Posted on Reply
#58
zlobby
mechtechBeen there done that lol. Did a short stint overseas mining. Worked 12-hr shifts whole month and was paid monthly. I gave my banker heads up though and sure enough first paycheck there was questions but he took care of it. Actually happened twice. After wedding when deposited all the gifts got a call from bank. Told them was wedding gifts and then they were like hey would you like any help investing this? I said will be 0 once pay off the wedding lol
Ah, weddings! What a business it is! Only beaten by divorces...

And that's the things you can explain to IRS and banks. Imagine if Bin Laden's cousin wires you a couple hundred thousand $? Well, or at least FBI says the money are from his account.
Now, someone wiring you that much money from an alleged 'most wanted' guy definately means business. What do?
Posted on Reply
#59
Katie
Told you not to use Windows 11. Telemetry, data collection, auto updates enforcement, DRM, local censorship solution, keep you clouded, Macism, homogeneous society, mandatry agreement, antivirus only kills keygens freeware, etc. etc. What's next? Another Golden Age of software?
Posted on Reply
#60
mechtech
zlobbyAh, weddings! What a business it is! Only beaten by divorces...

And that's the things you can explain to IRS and banks. Imagine if Bin Laden's cousin wires you a couple hundred thousand $? Well, or at least FBI says the money are from his account.
Now, someone wiring you that much money from an alleged 'most wanted' guy definately means business. What do?
For me it would be the CRA (Canada revenue agency) Either way I would expect in a country such as the USA or Canada, the authorities would follow the rule of Law and do a thorough investigation. And then sieze the 'bad guys' money, unless wife spends it all first lol
Posted on Reply
#61
zlobby
KatieTold you not to use Windows 11. Telemetry, data collection, auto updates enforcement, DRM, local censorship solution, keep you clouded, Macism, homogeneous society, mandatry agreement, antivirus only kills keygens freeware, etc. etc. What's next? Another Golden Age of software?
It's the same with Win 10 as well. Win 7, once patched with everything gets similar amount of telemetry and the rest of M$' shite.
Posted on Reply
#62
Chomiq
Maybe they tried to install the LHR unlocker? :D
Posted on Reply
#63
Valantar
qubitIt's unthinkable that NVIDIA don't have a backup of the data that was taken from them.
Obviously they do. Data loss is hardly ever the problem with hacks like this, but rather the sharing of proprietary data is.
CallandorWoTI just love reading ancient history and thinking about a lot of great thinkers back then. I'll never be rich, in fact, I doubt I will ever be able to ever buy a house. I find great pleasure in knowledge for knowledges' sake, and discovering how much we have lost in modernity to our baser instincts. On the same hand, you only need a lot of money if you have a lot of expenses and also... ones perception of reality. but I digress.
I mostly agree with your sentiments in this thread, though I would caution against putting too much value on nostalgia, ancient thinkers, and ideas that historical societies were somehow better - that is literally never the case. While our current world is deeply, deeply messed up, and IMO needs a radical reconfiguration on myriad levels, there have been no large scale historical societies that have managed to not be equally messed up in their own way. And this is reflected in the thinking of their philosophers as well - while I do think Western Enlightenment philosophy has caused massive damage across the world for the past few centuries, it's not like the quasi-fascism of Plato was ultimately much better. And while he's obviously an easy negative example, he's not an outlier. What we need is new thinking, not idealized rehashings of the ideas of slavers, conquerors, religious zealots or otherwise flawed thinkers. Personally I'd recommend looking into existentialist phenomenology (and ideally more recent developments, even if Husserl is also worth reading), but that's just me.
AnarchoPrimitivNice to know somebody thinks like me on here.... My only question is this: can we REALLY look at the reality around us of the entire world and truly claim technology has a been a NET benefit for the individuals of our species? For the world as a whole? Technology and civilization can be likened to a factory farm, yes, the livestock in them are more plentiful then ever, but the quality of their life is abysmal.
For that question to be answerable, we need to clearly define "technology", which ... well, from the work I've done delving into philosophy of technology for the past few years isn't really possible without drawing arbitrary lines like Heidegger's (who, for the record, was a nazi) delineation between "modern" techology and older tools. Which essentially boils down to "something something more advanced something materials something grumble something I don't like it". Of course the current term 'technology' is a relatively recent invention (and at first used to mean something along the lines of the knowledge of how to perform an activity or use a set of tools in order to produce a specific outcome, rather than the current use where it typically designates a broad category of things), and is as many colloquial terms not really clearly definable. In the end, any object used for a purpose is a tool, whether naturally occurring or made in some way, and the line between 'tool' and colloquial 'technology' is essentially meaningless beyond indicating (a deeply problematic and ahistorical) idea of 'technology' being 'new'.

Of course, we can always discuss whether the human ability to use and make tools for ever more complex purposes is a net benefit, and I would mostly say no. Though I think you're framing the question wrong: whether or not it's a net benefit for the individuals of our species is myopic; the question is whether it's a net benefit to the world. And that's a pretty clear-cut no.
dyonoctisTo the people who have "nostalgia" of a time when technology wasn't a thing, I would just say "what if" kind of debates are always going to be fruitless. "What if the Europeans didn't invade America, what if gunpowder was never invented...". Technologie reached the current point as a natural evolution of us trying make life easier. There wasn't really a time where life was "better in every way", the problems were just different. In the current state of the world, "plugging out the internet" would be disastrous, and not just for big companies.
Fruitless? Not at all. I also don't like the nostalgia that often dominates these discussions (that hews far too close to reactionary thinking, romanticizations and idealizations of non-existent pasts, and ultimately fascism to me). But the discussions are highly useful and necessary, as we need to be able to question and think critically about the fundamental systems of our world. Framing technology as a "natural evolution" is deeply problematic. It looks like that because of its large-scale randomness and arbitrariness, but framing technological development as natural or inevitable is deeply, deeply flawed revisionist thinking, and only works logically if you start from the present state and write your history in reverse, narrativizing the random successes that have led to the current state while ignoring the wildly branching nature of this development, the myriad false starts and failures, and how any reasonable definition of merit (the equivalent to biological 'fitness' in the "technology as natural evolution" metaphor) is entirely divorced from the facts of which technologies succeeded and which didn't. Technological development has been deeply bound up in societal rules, norms, practices, power dynamics and economic realities as long as anything resembling a society has existed, and while the overall development can never be claimed to be planned (too many shifts, failures and unplanned events throughout history for that), it is nonetheless entirely contingent on human society. Framing it as "natural" is a rhetorical device that only serves to obscure the sociohistorical specificities that underpin and make possible these developments.
Posted on Reply
#64
dyonoctis
ValantarObviously they do. Data loss is hardly ever the problem with hacks like this, but rather the sharing of proprietary data is.

I mostly agree with your sentiments in this thread, though I would caution against putting too much value on nostalgia, ancient thinkers, and ideas that historical societies were somehow better - that is literally never the case. While our current world is deeply, deeply messed up, and IMO needs a radical reconfiguration on myriad levels, there have been no large scale historical societies that have managed to not be equally messed up in their own way. And this is reflected in the thinking of their philosophers as well - while I do think Western Enlightenment philosophy has caused massive damage across the world for the past few centuries, it's not like the quasi-fascism of Plato was ultimately much better. And while he's obviously an easy negative example, he's not an outlier. What we need is new thinking, not idealized rehashings of the ideas of slavers, conquerors, religious zealots or otherwise flawed thinkers. Personally I'd recommend looking into existentialist phenomenology (and ideally more recent developments, even if Husserl is also worth reading), but that's just me.

For that question to be answerable, we need to clearly define "technology", which ... well, from the work I've done delving into philosophy of technology for the past few years isn't really possible without drawing arbitrary lines like Heidegger's (who, for the record, was a nazi) delineation between "modern" techology and older tools. Which essentially boils down to "something something more advanced something materials something grumble something I don't like it". Of course the current term 'technology' is a relatively recent invention (and at first used to mean something along the lines of the knowledge of how to perform an activity or use a set of tools in order to produce a specific outcome, rather than the current use where it typically designates a broad category of things), and is as many colloquial terms not really clearly definable. In the end, any object used for a purpose is a tool, whether naturally occurring or made in some way, and the line between 'tool' and colloquial 'technology' is essentially meaningless beyond indicating (a deeply problematic and ahistorical) idea of 'technology' being 'new'.

Of course, we can always discuss whether the human ability to use and make tools for ever more complex purposes is a net benefit, and I would mostly say no. Though I think you're framing the question wrong: whether or not it's a net benefit for the individuals of our species is myopic; the question is whether it's a net benefit to the world. And that's a pretty clear-cut no.

Fruitless? Not at all. I also don't like the nostalgia that often dominates these discussions (that hews far too close to reactionary thinking, romanticizations and idealizations of non-existent pasts, and ultimately fascism to me). But the discussions are highly useful and necessary, as we need to be able to question and think critically about the fundamental systems of our world. Framing technology as a "natural evolution" is deeply problematic. It looks like that because of its large-scale randomness and arbitrariness, but framing technological development as natural or inevitable is deeply, deeply flawed revisionist thinking, and only works logically if you start from the present state and write your history in reverse, narrativizing the random successes that have led to the current state while ignoring the wildly branching nature of this development, the myriad false starts and failures, and how any reasonable definition of merit (the equivalent to biological 'fitness' in the "technology as natural evolution" metaphor) is entirely divorced from the facts of which technologies succeeded and which didn't. Technological development has been deeply bound up in societal rules, norms, practices, power dynamics and economic realities as long as anything resembling a society has existed, and while the overall development can never be claimed to be planned (too many shifts, failures and unplanned events throughout history for that), it is nonetheless entirely contingent on human society. Framing it as "natural" is a rhetorical device that only serves to obscure the sociohistorical specificities that underpin and make possible these developments.
There's a fair amount of stuff that we are doing right now with technology that we've already tried to do before the concept of an electronic computer was even a thing. A lot of people tried to make speech synthesis before computers where even a thing, they made object that mimicked the way that our bodies works. Making an artificial life form that is capable of though was also a very old fantasy of ours. Automaton couldn't really think, but they gave the illusion that they could act like us in a limited way.

I do admit that a lot of stuff evolved because we got rid of religious belief that only God is allowed to make some things, but humanity as a whole always had that will to make tools to get further ahead. "Engineering" weither it's about making a pointy stick, a bow, or a centralised heating system has been a key component to our survival. Being smart is literally the only thing that we got for us.

I make a distinction between questioning how the world got to be like it is now, (I literally had to do that for my thesis on emotional recognition by an A.I, and the shit storm that it could start) and Trying to rework the past. I should have precised that, to be fair. "what if "scenario about the future are important, but when it's about the past it's an exercise that can be interesting to read, but can hardly make an impact on the now and future. Especially when in some case those exercise can look like a way to fantasize about a better outcome, instead of trying to deal with the current issues
Posted on Reply
Add your own comment
Feb 9th, 2024 23:44 EST change timezone

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts