Ransomware Attacks X-Cart Store Platform, and according to the software vendor that makes X-Cart, the problem stemmed from a ransomware attack X-Cart recently suffered. It brought down hosted customer stores on the company’s platform.
While there are no details about the Ransomware Attacks at this point and the issues are resolved, the problem seems to have arisen when attackers exploit a vulnerability in some third-party software that allows them to access X-Cart’s store hosting system. Jeff Cohen, the VP of Marketing for Seller Labs and producers of X-Cart, said, “We have identified what we believed to have been the vulnerability but do not wish to disclose the name until our security firm confirms it.”
Reading between the lines of this statement shows that the investigation into the matter is still ongoing. However, the attackers encrypted a small number of X-Cart’s store servers, which was enough to grind the system to a halt. Of interest, the hackers did not demand a ransom, nor provide any way for Seller Labs to communicate with them, so the company restored their servers from recent backups.
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Impacts on the stores were uneven. Some went offline completely, while others reported issues with sending email alerts. In any case, Seller Labs moved quickly to restore service, and the outage lasted only a few days. Unfortunately, a few days is a very long time. Some of X-Cart’s customers are not happy with the relatively limit of information the company has provided to this point. The disgruntled customers banded together, serving the Seller Labs with a Class Action lawsuit.
Everything seems to be back to normal with the X-Cart’s store platform at this point, but if your company sees any evidence of the breach, it pays to be aware of the pending lawsuit and consider how you might wish to proceed.
