An outage that has affected Hosted Exchange customers of Rackspace Technologies Inc. has been confirmed by the company to be the result of a ransomware attack.

In a statement today, Rackspace said that the ransomware attack was isolated to its Hosted Exchange business and that its other products and services are fully operational, including its email product line and platform. Alongside the Rackspace internal security team, a cyber defense firm has been hired to investigate the attack and proactive measures have been put in place to contain the incident.

Out of an “abundance of caution,” Rackspace has also put additional security measures in place and will continue to monitor actively for any suspicious activity. Hosted Exchange customers are being assisted in migrating to a new environment as quickly as possible.

The incident, which has been ongoing since Dec. 2, may result in a loss of revenue for the Hosted Exchange business, which generates about $30 million in annual revenue in Rackspace’s Apps & Cross Platform segment. Additional incremental costs may also be associated with the response to the incident.

According to Bleeping Computer, the outage still affects all services in the Hosted Exchange environment, including MAPI/RPC, POP, IMAP, SMTP and ActiveSync, as well as the Outlook Web Access interface that provides access to online email management. Affected customers are being provided with Microsoft Exchange Plan 1 licenses and instructions on migrating their email to Microsoft 365 until the outage is addressed.

What is missing from the confirmation is the type of ransomware attack and whether any data has been stolen. In a support update, Rackspace said it has been unable to ascertain whether any consumer data was affected by the attack but added that it would notify customers if it finds that data has been stolen.

Rackspace was previously in the news last month when it racked up another loss as its restructuring plans take shape.

Photo: Scott Beale/Laughing Squid