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Broadcom hit by employee data theft after breach in supply chain

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ADP's business partner got served ransomware last September

A digital themed isometric showing a neon padlock in the foreground, and a technological diagram of a processor logic board in the background.
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  • Business Systems House was breached in September
  • It is a business partner of ADP, which serviced Broadcom at one point
  • Now, sensitive Broadcom files seem to have emerged on the dark web

Customers of the global semiconductor giant Broadcom have had their sensitive data leaked on the dark web after a two-step supply chain attack. Apparently, a company called Business Systems House (BSH), a human capital management (HCM) services provider from the Middle East, suffered a ransomware attack in September 2024, in which a group known as El Dorado (later rebranded as BlackLock), stole its files.

This firm is a business partner of payroll company ADP which, in turn, worked with Broadcom. In fact, the chip giant was in the process of switching payroll providers when the incident happened, meaning it almost dodged that bullet.

However, in December 2024, the two firms discovered the stolen data on the internet. “Because the data taken by the criminal actor was in an unstructured format, definitively determining which employees were impacted and, for each employee, which data fields were disclosed, was a lengthy process for BSH/ADP, and this information was not made available to Broadcom until May 12, 2025,” it was explained.

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El Dorado or BlackLock

According to The Register, who first broke the story, the attackers made away with the following data:

  • National ID numbers
  • National health insurance ID numbers
  • Health insurance policy/ID numbers
  • Financial account numbers
  • Dates of birth
  • Salary details
  • Employment termination date
  • Personal email addresses
  • Personal phone numbers
  • Home addresses

Broadcom urged everyone to turn on MFA and any other security settings that their financial institutions provide. Furthermore, it warned users to monitor their financial records.

You’ll be forgiven for not knowing who El Dorado is. It is a relatively new ransomware operation, emerging in March 2024, and already rebranded to BlackLock. The files stolen from Broadcom were posted on the BlackLock leak site, as well. Allegedly, the group consists of Russian-speaking individuals.

Broadcom serves a diverse range of customers across various industries, including technology, finance, healthcare, and telecommunications. Some of the biggest names include Apple, Samsung, Cisco, British Airways, and many others. ADP, The Register claims, is no worse, but so far, no one reported losing data.

Via The Register

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Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.

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