IPG Photonics high-performance laser developer hit with ransomware

IPG Photonics, a leading U.S. manufacturer of high-performance fiber lasers for diverse applications and industries was hit by a ransomware attack that disrupted its operations.

IPG Photonics manufactures high-performance fiber lasers, amplifiers, and laser systems for diverse applications and industries.

The company was founded in 1990 in Russia by physicist Valentin Gapontsev, it employs over 4,000 people and has a $1.3 billion revenue in 2019.

The laser systems designed by the company were part of the U.S. Navy’s arsenal.

The news of the attack was first reported by BleepingComputer which was contacted on Monday by a source with knowledge of the attack.

The source told BleepingComputer that the ransomware attack had disrupted the operations worldwide of the company.

The attack affected email, phones, and network connectivity in the offices.

“Due to the attack, IPG Photonics IT systems are shutdown worldwide, affecting email, phones, and network connectivity in the offices.” reported BleepingComputer. “With these systems down, BleepingComputer is also being told that manufacturing parts and shipping have become unavailable.”

BleepingComputer speculates that the attack was carried out by RansomExx ransomware operators, the same gang that recently hit the IT giant Konica Minolta.

The RansomEXX is human-operated ransomware, this means that attackers manually infected the systems after gained access to the target network.

In June 2020, the same ransomware was employed in an attack on the Texas Department of Transportation.

The good news is that the RansomEXX ransom, unlike other families of ransomware, does not appear to exfiltrate data before encrypting target systems.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, IPG Photonics)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.