One of Malaysia’s largest web hosting company, Exabytes Network Sdn. Bhd., was hit by a ransomware attack this morning, affecting its hosting services.
https://twitter.com/Exabytes_MY/status/1439220026226003969
Ransomware is a malware that employs encryption to hold a victim’s information at ransom. A user or organization’s critical data is encrypted so that they cannot access files, databases, or applications. A ransom is then demanded to provide access. Ransomware is often designed to spread across a network and target database and file servers, and can thus quickly paralyze an entire organization.
The Malaysia-based web hosting company said that the hacker is demanding a ransom payment of USD 900k (approximately RM3.75 million) in cryptocurrency to unlock the system.
Below is what Exabytes posted today:
Dear valued customer,
18 SEPTEMBER 2021 – As of 5.00am this morning, Exabytes had become a target of a hacker assault, which has resulted in service disruptions on some of our services. The hacker demanded USD 900,000 to be paid in Crypto currency.
The security and confidentiality of all our Clients’ data is a top priority for us. Our technical team is working tirelessly to solve this issue and attempting to restore our services to full capacity.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused to our Clients, and we would like to assure all parties involved that we are being extremely vigilant in making sure that all operations resume as quickly as possible.
The attack has been promptly notified with the relevant authorities and we will provide further updates on this as we learn more details.
Clients may contact our team at [email protected] for more information on your respective accounts.
Exabytes Group
At the time of writing, it is not known if Exabytes paid the ransom or if it has a recent backup of the affected system. It did not disclose the specific services that are affected.