AMD Confirms Some of its GPU Hardware Data was Stolen!

While there is still no news on AMD’s ‘Big Navi’ graphics card, they are still expected (all going well) to release at some point this year. It seems, however, that something may have come along that’s causing them a few issues.

In a report via TechPowerUp, AMD has confirmed that a data breach occurred at the company. One that may have contained (or more accurately, released) sensitive data about their upcoming GPU designs.

AMD Data Breach

In a sample of the data breach that was posted online, there were several references within to “Navi 10,” “Navi 21,” and “Arden”. The latter of which potentially being something regarding their Xbox Series X graphics adaptor. It seems, however, that the breach is definitely genuine, with even AMD confirming its validity.

While AMD was able to successfully remove the original post via a DMCA application, it seems pretty clear that whatever data this person has, it’s (at least in part) pretty important!

In a statement, AMD has said the following:

“At AMD, data security and the protection of our intellectual property are a priority. In December 2019, we were contacted by someone who claimed to have test files related to a subset of our current and future graphics products. Some of which were recently posted online, but have since been taken down.

While we are aware the perpetrator has additional files that have not been made public. We believe the stolen graphics IP is not core to the competitiveness or security of our graphics products. We are not aware of the perpetrator possessing any other AMD IP [and] we are working closely with law enforcement officials and other experts as a part of an ongoing criminal investigation.”

What Happens Now?

Well, I suppose it all boils down to exactly what this stolen code contains. All going well, it is just technical data. As such, it may (hopefully) not open up any potential security problems for AMD or its consumers. The person in possession of it, however, was clearly attempting to blackmail AMD to not publicize it in full online. They are, incidentally, already on record saying that if they don’t receive $100m for it (from AMD or any other interested parties), they’ll just post it online for the world to see anyway.

Does this person feel bad about it though? The short answer is no. They claim to have accessed it from an unprotected computer or server and, perhaps worse, the data itself wasn’t encrypted in any way. As such, through the use of some relatively basic exploits, they decided to grab a copy of it for themselves and this is the position we now find ourselves in.

Will this impact AMD’s plans though? Well, as much as we’d like to think not, you simply can not expect it to not contain something important! Hopefully, though, it turns all to be all bark and no bite. We have, quite frankly, waiting long enough for ‘Big Navi’ already!

What do you think? Will this impact the launch of ‘Big Navi’? Do you think AMD is worried about this breach? – Let us know in the comments!