If you are experiencing this outage firsthand and have no email, please reach out to IT Support LA for assistance with migration. As a longtime prominent member of the IT Support Los Angeles community – and a High-Level Microsoft Partner, IT Support LA is expert at quick and secure email migrations.

The details of the outage:

In an update to the initial incident report, Rackspace, the Texas-based cloud computing provider, confirmed today that an ongoing Hosted Exchange outage was caused by a ransomware attack, but is describing the attack as an "isolated disruption."

Rackspace stated: "As you know, on Friday, December 2nd, 2022, we became aware of suspicious activity and immediately took proactive measures to isolate the Hosted Exchange environment to contain the incident."

"We have since determined this suspicious activity was the result of a ransomware incident."

The company says that the investigation, a joint effort by a Cybersecurity defense firm and its own internal security team, is still in its early stages. No conclusions have been drawn as to "what, if any, data was affected."

The cloud service provider says it will notify customers if it finds evidence that the attackers gained access to their sensitive information.

"Based on the investigation to date, Rackspace Technology believes that this incident was isolated to its Hosted Exchange business," the company stated in a press release.

"Rackspace Technology's other products and services are fully operational, and the company has not experienced an impact to its Email product line and platform."

Rackspace also revealed that it expects a loss of revenue due to the ransomware attack's impact on its $30 million Hosted Exchange business.

"Although Rackspace Technology is in the early stages of assessing this incident, the incident has caused and may continue to cause an interruption in its Hosted Exchange business and may result in a loss of revenue for the Hosted Exchange business, which generates approximately $30 million of annual revenue in the Apps & Cross Platform segment," the company said.

"In addition, Rackspace Technology may have incremental costs associated with its response to the incident."

This announcement today comes four days after the initial acknowledgement of the outage on its status page, posted on Friday night, at 02:49 AM EST.

Rackspace revealed the actual cause of the outage twenty-four hours later, describing it as a security incident "isolated to a portion of our Hosted Exchange platform" that forced it to shut down and disconnect the Hosted Exchange environment.

"At this time, we are unable to provide a timeline for restoration of the Hosted Exchange environment. We are working to provide customers with archives of inboxes where available, to eventually import over to Microsoft 365," Rackspace added in today's update.

This is the original notice by Rackspace:

Posted today, December 6, 2022 at 8:26 AM (EST)

“We appreciate your patience as we continue to work through the security issues that have affected our Hosted Exchange environment. As you know, on Friday, December 2nd, 2022, we became aware of suspicious activity and immediately took proactive measures to isolate the Hosted Exchange environment to contain the incident. We have since determined this suspicious activity was the result of a ransomware incident.

Alongside our internal security team, we have engaged a leading cyber defense firm to investigate. Our investigation is still in its early stages, and it is too early to say what, if any, data was affected. If we determine sensitive information was affected, we will notify customers as appropriate.

Based on the investigation to date, we believe that this incident was isolated to our Hosted Exchange business. The Company's other products and services are fully operational, and we have not experienced any impact to our Rackspace Email product line and platform. Out of an abundance of caution, we have put additional security measures in place and will continue to actively monitor for any suspicious activity.

Rackspace is making available resources so that customers can migrate their users and domains to Microsoft 365. At this time, we are unable to provide a timeline for restoration of the Hosted Exchange environment. We are working to provide customers with archives of inboxes where available, to eventually import over to Microsoft 365.

As a temporary solution while you set up Microsoft 365, it is possible to also implement a forwarding option that will allow mail destined for a Hosted Exchange user to be routed to an external email address. Please log in to your customer account for a ticket with instructions to request this option. Customers should reply to the ticket to request the forwarding rule be put into place for each of their users.

If you do not see this ticket in your account and would like to take advantage of this option, please open a support ticket with the title: REQUESTING FORWARDING FOR HOSTED EXCHANGE. We will work with you to get this set up. NEW mail that is sent after the forwarding rule is put in place will be forwarded to the external address specified.

Notably, the forwarding rule will not apply retroactively to mail sent before the rule is put into place. This option can be used as a temporary solution while you set up Microsoft 365. Once you have fully set up Microsoft 365 and updated your DNS MX records, this forwarding rule will no longer be needed.

We understand the frustration this situation has caused for our customers and are doing everything we can to support them in migrating to Microsoft 365. We have surged our support staff and will be taking additional steps to help guide our customers through this process in order to limit the impact to their own operations.

We appreciate your continued patience and apologize for the inconvenience this situation has had on our valued customers. We are doing everything we can to make this right and will continue to provide updates and resources as available.”

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