Is Internap trying to conceal the full effects of a ransomware attack?

Ransomware attack on a computer
(Image credit: Kaspersky)

Cloud and data giant Internap (INAP) has experienced a ransomware attack which caused a halt on its email, database and website services.

Despite very little information online, the attack took place between the hours of 2:11 am CDT and 5:41 am CDT on September 28, before being discovered by a support technician by 8:00 am, CDT.

But interestingly, the report of the ransomware attack was later removed from INAP’s operational transparency incident report page

Covert ransomware attack 

Using internet archive tool Wayback Machine, the incident previously reported on INAP’s page stated the company’s incident report team were able to determine the root cause and attack vector used.

Despite the incident being resolved, INAP was not able to recover its customers’ services because of the attack and as a result, the firm will no longer provide multi-tenant website, database, web hosting and email hosting services, according to the report

This means that customers who did not have external backup software have lost their services. 

“We will be terminating these multi-tenant hosting services and removing the charges from your account effective immediately. The multi-tenant “GuestDNS” service was not impacted, and you can continue to make any DNS changes through the control panel,” said INAP.

“Our recommended path forward is to re-create any affected services on a bare metal server and to upload your data from your local copies if available.”

Currently, the most recent incident reported on INAP’s operational transparency page is the replacement of a faulty top-of-rack switch in its Chicago data center, which affected its client’s systems in those cabinets, resulting in 30 minutes of public network connectivity loss.

TechRadar Pro has reached out to INAP for further information on the incident, but the company is yet to reply.

Abigail Opiah
B2B Editor - Web hosting & Website builders

Abigail is a B2B Editor that specializes in web hosting and website builder news, features and reviews at TechRadar Pro. She has been a B2B journalist for more than five years covering a wide range of topics in the technology sector from colocation and cloud to data centers and telecommunications. As a B2B web hosting and website builder editor, Abigail also writes how-to guides and deals for the sector, keeping up to date with the latest trends in the hosting industry. Abigail is also extremely keen on commissioning contributed content from experts in the web hosting and website builder field.