Multibillion-dollar Equinix is the latest data-center firm to face ransomware incident

Equinix, a multibillion-dollar data center company, is grappling with a ransomware incident affecting its internal computer systems, the company announced late Wednesday.

The California-based company, which claims nearly 10,000 clients and has offices around the world, said the incident hadn’t impacted its support for customers, and that its data centers “remain fully operational.” Law enforcement officials are investigating the Equinix incident, the company said without elaborating.

Data-hosting firms are a recurring target for ransomware gangs that figure the threat to customer data helps their chances of a payout. In December, Texas-based data center company CyrusOne said that at least six of its customers were affected by a ransomware attack.

There is much at stake for Equinix in guarding its data centers. The company reported $5.5 billion in revenue last year, and recently announced the acquisition of two big data centers in India for $161 million.

Central to Equinix’s response to the incident will presumably be Michael Montoya, a former Microsoft and FireEye security executive whom Equinix hired last year as its chief information security officer.

An Equinix spokesperson did not respond by press time to questions on who was responsible for the attack and whether a ransom was demanded.