Hackers demand Nvidia lift hash-rate limit and threaten to disclose data

The hacker group LAPSUS$ said it is prepared to publish or sell 1 terabyte of stolen confidential data if Nvidia does not lift the mining restrictions in the new RTX 30-series. The report is by PC Gamer.

In the absence of a solution that satisfies them, LAPSUS$ will disclose schematics, drivers and other “highly valuable for Nvidia” internal data. The group said its actions were motivated by a desire to “help the mining and gaming communities.”

The attackers managed to maintain administrator access to Nvidia’s servers for a week.

Since February 2021 Nvidia released the updated Lite Hash Rate (LHR) line of RTX 3000 GPUs, for which it halved the device’s mining power for Ethereum. In this way the company aimed to align the GPUs with gamers’ needs.

The publication suggested that the hackers may already have begun secretly selling information about the operating algorithms of GA102–GA104 GPUs, though there is no confirmation.

Nvidia said it is investigating the incident and declined to comment further.

Earlier, ForkLog reported that Nvidia’s GPU restrictions proved ineffective in the fight against mining.

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