MATLAB Maker MathWorks Recovering From Ransomware Attack

Software maker MathWorks this week confirmed that a widespread outage that has impacted its applications since May 18 was the result of a ransomware attack.

Mainly known for MATLAB and Simulink, two products that provide data analysis and simulation, MathWorks was hit on May 18, when it announced on its application status page that it was investigating an issue with multiple applications.

The incident, the Massachusetts-based company said, impacted multiple web and mobile applications, its licensing services, downloads and online store, website, wiki, MathWorks accounts, and other services.

The status page shows that MathWorks made a breakthrough over the weekend, and that services were being slowly restored, starting with MATLAB Online and MATLAB Mobile.

The company confirmed on Monday that a ransomware attack was the root cause of the widespread outage, saying that many of the impacted IT systems had been restored.

“Some of our online applications used by customers became unavailable, and certain internal systems used by staff became unavailable, beginning on Sunday, May 18. We have brought many of these systems back online and are continuing to bring other systems back online with the assistance of cybersecurity experts,” the company said.

In an update on Wednesday, the company announced that additional services have been restored. Many of its applications, however, remain offline or are operating in a degraded state.

MathWorks appears to have focused its efforts on fully restoring services related to MATLAB, its flagship product, with more than five million users worldwide.

The company says it notified the relevant authorities of the attack, but shared no details on the threat actor responsible and SecurityWeek has not seen any known ransomware groups claiming responsibility. SecurityWeek has emailed MathWorks for additional information and will update this article if a response is received.

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