A ransomware attack on one of the biggest web hosting providers, Managed.com, caused the company to take down all its servers to deal with the cyberattack.
The ransomware attack affected the company's clients, disabling them from accessing their sites.
Web Hosting Provider Managed.com Attacked
According to ZDNet, it happened on Monday, November 16, with the ransomware impacting the company's public-facing web hosting systems, which resulted in some of the client sites having their data encrypted.
The company said that the attack initially only affected a limited number of clients, but hours later, they were forced to close down an entire web hosting infrastructure that they are now working on to restore.
As the company is trying to restore the services, the affected client sites are still inaccessible, including DotNetNuke and WordPress hosting solutions, DNS servers, email servers, FTP servers, and RDP access points, as well as online databases.
The company also confirmed that they are working with the proper authorities and are trying to identify who was behind the attack as well as restoring their customer systems.
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Will the Company Restore Its Systems Soon?
However, many of the Managed.com clients have been speaking out in forums, expressing their fear that their sites may not be accessible for days or even weeks, with some citing a similar attack that happened on another web hosting provider, A2 Hosting, back in May 2019.
According to them, the company required more than a month to restore everything, so their clients had to wait for quite some time to access their sites and get their site data back.
Moreover, the company also initially said that the reason why clients can't access their sites is due to unscheduled maintenance, but after a mob of angry clients, they came clean through emails and messages provided by the company's tech support operators.
As per TechRadar, it is part of the standard response to ransomware to shutdown core systems, which also helps prevent the malware from spreading further.
Managed.com has declined to comment further, according to ZDNet.
The web hosting provider offers CMS-optimized platforms that target entrepreneur-level clients and small businesses.
Falling Prey to Ransomware
Meanwhile, ransomware is a type of cyberattack wherein the cybercriminals would encrypt their target's data and would then send a message to them, typically asking for money in exchange for the key to decrypt and acquire their data back.
In the event the target is unable to comply, cybercriminals would either delete their data entirely or sell them on underground forums, where data can be used for a number of other crimes.
Unfortunately, ransomware attackers have been quite successful in their attempts, and organizations have been paying an average of $1 million to restore their networks.
Managed.com and A2 Hosting are not the only web hosting providers that have been attacked as there's quite a list, including CyrusOne, Equinix, Dataresolution.net, Cognizant, Internet Nayana, X-Cart, and SmarterASP.net.
For now, clients who have been affected will have to wait until the company is able to entirely remove the malicious program and deem it safe to restore its web infrastructure.
Related Article: X-Cart Faces Ransomware Attack Before Black Friday, Customer Stores Gravely Affected Since October
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Written by: Nhx Tingson
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