Equinix reveals ransomware infection, services unaffected

The attack seems to have infected business systems, not data centres software

American data centre giant Equinix revealed on Wednesday that some internal systems had been infected with ransomware, but promised to continue operations regardless.

In a statement, the company said that after detecting the infection, its security teams took action to address the incident and notified appropriate law enforcement agencies.

The firm added that the incident did not impact its ability to support customers, and that all its data centres and service offerings remain fully operational.

"Note that as most customers operate their own equipment within Equinix data centres, this incident has had no impact on their operations or the data on their equipment at Equinix," the company stated.

The statement suggests that the cyber incident likely affected Equinix's business applications, rather than systems related to data centre operations.

There are currently no reports of customers complaining about a major outage on social media.

The company says it will take all appropriate measures, based on the results of the investigation.

Ransomware attacks have been on the rise for the past several months, security experts have warned, and Equinix is just the latest in that list.

Last month, officials in Lafayette City, Colorado (not to be confused with Lafeyette, Louisiana), disclosed that they paid $45,000 to an unidentified group of hackers who were holding the City's data hostage. Although no personal details or credit card information were compromised in the attack, the hackers were successful in encrypting some computer systems on the network.

In June, Honda suffered a suspected ransomware attack causing disruption to its computer network and loss of connectivity. At the time, some media reports claimed that cyber actors targeted a Honda server with SNAKE (Ekans) ransomware, aiming to damage the company's computer network.

In May, package and mail delivery firm Pitney Bowes fell victim to a second ransomware attack in a year. The security incident was disclosed after the Maze ransomware group published some screenshots online and claimed that it was able to breach and encrypt the company's network.

And in April, tech services provider Cognizant also said it was hit by a Maze ransomware attack, resulting in service disruptions to some its clients.