SwaggSec hacks Foxconn, uses unpatched IE

Foxconn has made it to the news again, but this time they happen to be the victims. 9to5Mac reports that the company’s website was hacked by a group, called SwaggSec. They managed to hack into Foxconn’s internal network through an unpatched copy of Internet Explorer used by one of Foxconn’s employees. The hacker group created a 6 MB file and shared it on torrent sites like Demonoid and The Pirate Bay, which contained login and password details for Foxconn’s e-mail servers, intranets, and various other sites affiliated with the company.

Hacked and how!

The file has now been taken off, but it apparently contained every single e-mail login from Foxconn, including that of the company’s CEO, Terry Gou. Along with gathering information, the hackers also had a little message prepared for the company and here’s a little excerpt from it. “So Foxconn thinks they got ‘em some swagger because they work with the Big Boys from Intel, Microsoft, IBM, and Apple? Fool, You don’t know what swagger is. They say you got your employees all worked up, committing suicide ‘n stuff. They say you hire chinese workers ’cause you think the taiwanese are elite. We got somethin’ served up good…real good. Your not gonna’ know what hit you by the time you finish this release. Your company gonna’ crumble, and you deserve it. We encourage media, security experts, and other interested individuals to explore our leaks. Foxconn did have an appropriate firewall, but fortunately to our intent, we were able to bypass it almost flawlessly. Of course with funding ourselves we did have our limitations. But with several hacking techniques employed, and a couple of days in time, we were able to dump most of everything of significance.” You can read the rest of it here. 

It’s not only the internal details of Foxconn that were leaked, but also sensitive information about their clients, which could spell disaster should that be misused. Foxconn, on their part are yet to issue an official statement.