Cloud Hosting Provider iNSYNQ Hit With Ransomware Attack

'iNSYNQ continues to engage cyber-security experts for assistance and are working as quickly as we can to restore access to all impacted data,' the company said in a website post. 'We are not withholding backups. We simply cannot safely access them at this time.'

Cloud hosting provider iNSYNQ experienced a ransomware attack on Tuesday that left an unspecified number of its clients’ data inaccessible, the company disclosed on its website.

Gig Harbor, Wash.-based iNSYNQ said it took steps to contain the attack by unknown “malicious” perpetrators as soon as it discovered it, including turning off some servers, but did not give a timeline.

“This effort was made to protect our clients’ data and backups,” iNSYNQ said in a system status notice posted on its site at 1:30 p.m. EST today. “iNSYNQ continues to engage cyber-security experts for assistance and are working as quickly as we can to restore access to all impacted data. We are not withholding backups. We simply cannot safely access them at this time.”

The company, which markets virtual desktops, web app management and QuickBooks cloud hosting among other offerings, said it’s working diligently to ensure backups are available to customers once it’s addressed the underlying problem.

“We are taking extreme measures to get your data and environments back up and running as soon as possible,” its status report said. “To manage expectations, it is unlikely that we will be able to accomplish this today.”

iNSYNQ said it would continue to “follow up as we have more clarity on the situation.” It cancelled its maintenance scheduled for today and tomorrow for its 3.x managed service provider customers.

In a post yesterday morning, iNSYNQ said it was working to determine whether impacted customer data was accessed without authorization. “At this time we have no evidence of such access,” that post said. It’s unclear whether that held true today. The company could not be immediately reached for comment.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software, or malware, designed to deny access to a computer system or data until a ransom is paid.

Apps4Rent, a Maplewood, N.J., cloud hosting provider, used the attack to market itself on Twitter as an alternative to iNSYNQ for hosting accounting software with a “99.9 percent uptime guarantee.”

Costa Mesa, Calif.-based ERP Cloud Hosting, a QuickBooks hosting provider, also took to Twitter, tweeting “seeking a reliable host that would never accept being down for a minute let alone more than 3 days?”