Tag Archive for: Outage

Ransomware-hit Rackspace email outage enters 12th day • The Register

/in


There’s no end – or restored data – in sight for some Rackspace customers now on day 12 of the company’s ransomware-induced hosted Exchange email outage.

In the service provider’s most recent update, posted at 0844 Eastern Time on Wednesday, Rackspace said it had hired CrowdStrike to investigate the fiasco, and noted it continues “to make all of our internal and external resources available to provide support to the remaining Hosted Exchange customers.”

Rackspace did not, however, say if or when it expects to recover people’s data that was lost or scrambled when ransomware hit its systems – an attack that took down some of Rackspace’s hosted Microsoft Exchange services on December 2. Since then, affected customers have been unable to get at their data held in the hosted service.

“We understand how important data recovery is to our customers,” Rackspace wrote. “In ransomware attacks, data recovery efforts do necessarily take significant time, both due to the nature of the attack and need to follow additional security protocols. We will continue to keep you updated on these efforts.”

Here’s a flavor of the customer sentiment right now:

The company also claimed to have transitioned more than two thirds of its customers to Microsoft 365, and, as it has in previous updates, Rackspace urged customers to migrate their users and domains to this environment.

“As a reminder, if you have not yet transitioned to Microsoft 365 or have not fully completed the transition, please leverage our support channels by either joining us in chat or by calling +1 (855) 348-9064 (INTL: +44 (0) 203 917 4743),” the update said. “Wait times continue to average less than 30 minutes.”

Some users, however, say it’s much longer. One…

Source…

COD website back up; School confirms outage was a malware attack

/in


All online student services are back up on the College of the Desert website. This comes nearly a month after a widespread computer outage took down phone and online services.

On Friday, school officials confirmed that the school was a victim of a malware attack. As we’ve previously reported, COD was working with the FBI to investigate the circumstances behind the outage.

There were no further details released on the federal investigation at this time.

“The College is working with law enforcement and given the sensitive nature of the investigation, will not be issuing further communications about the case,” reads a news release from COD officials.

This is the second malware attack at the school in the past two years. In August 2020, the COD website fell victim to a malware attack, wiping out access to online services and email, similar to what happened this month.

This recent malware attack started on July 4. Over the past few weeks, students and faculty reported issues accessing their emails, phone lines, and school servers while the school worked on a phase-based restoration of services.

“College of the Desert appreciates the patience and cooperation of students, faculty, and staff,” Garcia said. “Now that student-facing systems are operational, staff can focus on the College’s mission of student success.”

In the last two weeks, key student-facing services were restored in phases based on an internal recovery plan.

● July 5 – Temporary pathways to course resources and CODNews.org were built.
● July 14 – Wi-Fi, internet services, and Colleague UI Portal were brought back online.
● July 18 – The main website and phone systems were re-established.
● July 21 – Faculty email was restored; Student Self-Service, WebAdvisor, and Payment Processing were live.

“The College’s Information Technology team worked to quickly restore all systems that impact students,” said Superintendent/President, Martha Garcia, Ed.D. “Round-the-clock dedication and an overall spirit of teamwork among faculty, students and…

Source…

Carthage Schools confirm ransomware attack caused outage last year | KSNF/KODE

/in


Choosing a college is one of the most important decisions a person will make for their education, impacting everything from future earnings and employment to potential student loan debt and social circles.

While every student wants to get the best education they possibly can, there are myriad other considerations to take into account: location, size, diversity, areas of focus, study abroad opportunities—the list goes on. While best college lists are often topped with the same handful of expensive Ivy League schools, the U.S. is home to more than 4,000 degree-granting schools spread out across all 50 states and several territories, with amazing education offerings for students of every age.

Source…

Facebook says in-house ‘error’ caused outage; GM ramps up its electrification strategy |

/in


Facebook: internal error led to outage

LONDON — The outage that knocked Facebook and its other platforms offline for hours this week was caused by an error during routine maintenance, the company said.

Santosh Janardhan, vice president of infrastructure, said in an Oct. 5 blog post that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp going dark was “caused not by malicious activity, but an error of our own making.”

The problem occurred as engineers were carrying out day to day work on Facebook’s global backbone network; the computers, routers and software in its data centers around the world along with the fiber-optic cables connecting them.

“During one of these routine maintenance jobs, a command was issued with the intention to assess the availability of global backbone capacity, which unintentionally took down all the connections in our backbone network, effectively disconnecting Facebook data centers globally,” Janardhan said.

GM spells out its EV sales ambitions

WARREN, Mich. — General Motors plans to cash in as the world switches from combustion engines to battery power, promising to double its annual revenue by 2030 with an array of new electric vehicles, profitable gas-powered cars and trucks, and services such as an electronic driving system that can handle most tasks on the road.

In announcements Oct. 6 ahead of a two-day investor event in Detroit, the company also pledged to unseat Tesla and become the electric vehicle market share leader in U.S., although no time frame was given.

The company also teased upcoming new electric vehicles including a Chevrolet small SUV that will cost around $30,000, as well as electric trucks from Chevrolet and GMC, crossover SUVs from Buick, and luxury vehicles from Cadillac.

The automaker plans to have more than half of its North American and China factories be capable of making electric vehicles by 2030.

GM took in $122.5 billion in revenue in 2020, a year that was depressed by the coronavirus pandemic. Doubling it would be close to $250 billion.

GM, GE to build rare earth supply chain

NEW YORK — General Motors and General Electric are looking at developing a supply chain of rare earth materials that help make electric…

Source…