Last Tuesday, iNSYNQ, which offers virtual desktop environments, fell victim to ransomware, causing it to go offline. The attackoutage.
The attack not only affected iNSYNQ's direct customers, but also those who use the company's infrastructure to use Intuit Quickbooks web applications and services.
Last week, many sites blamed iNSYNQ for the lack of updates and the unusually long time it took to address the outage.
Typically, similar outages in web hosting services last only a few hours or a day at most.
However, in this specific case, iNSYNQ's servers were not operational due to the ransomware attack, resulting in the operational.
Following the infection, iNSYNQ was forced to take its infrastructure offline to prevent the ransomware from spreading to other systems.
Recovering the affected systems required reinstalling hundreds of servers and recovering backups.
These processes are time-consuming. That's why it took the company 6 days to complete all the restoration procedures. However, customers don't seem to have shown much understanding during this time.
INSYNQ was hit by MEGACORTEX
iNSYNQ CEO Elliot Luchansky revealed that the company fell victim to the MegaCortex ransomware, which was discovered in early May.
At the time, Sophos reported that the hackersbehind this new ransomware were targeting large businesses and not ordinary consumers.
iNSYNQ is perhaps the most important goal of MegaCortexso far.
Some backups were encrypted
After about a week, the company began to provide its customers with access to their virtual desktops again.
However, according to the CEO, the recovery processes were not entirely successful, as some customers still do not have access to some personal files and account backups.
“While we were aware of the attack early, the malware managed to encrypt some files,” iNSYNQ’s CEO said. “We are currently checking to see if they can be recovered.”
Encrypted files, which may exist on your desktop, with the .megacortex are not available for access.
Most of the files that were encrypted were small files and did not include QuickBooks or Sage files.
iNSYNQ asks its customers for understanding and patience. “Files and data may take time to be restored to your account,” the CEO said.
He also suggested that customers who see encrypted files on their desktops should contact company staff for assistance.
Ransomware attacks on web hosting companies are difficult and time-consuming to deal with.
In May, A2 Hosting, a Windows Server hosting service, also fell victim to a ransomware attack. It also took about a week for its customers to gain access to their servers. The full recovery process took a month to complete.
