The renowned MATLAB programming language and numeric computing environment's developer has reported a ransomware attack on its IT systems.
MathWorks, based in Massachusetts, sent an update to users after initially reporting issues on May 18, stating that the company had been hit by a ransomware attack that shut down online services and internal systems used by employees.
“We have notified federal law enforcement of this matter,” the company noted. “We have brought many of these systems back online and are continuing to bring other systems back online with the assistance of cybersecurity experts.”
MathWorks has millions of users, including engineers and scientists who use MATLAB for data analysis, calculation, and other purposes. MATLAB and other MathWorks products are utilised by nearly 6,500 colleges and universities, according to the company.
The firm has 6,500 employees and over 30 offices in Europe, Asia, and North America. This issue affected several MATLAB services as well as parts of the MathWorks website, such as the job page, cloud centre, store, and file exchange. MATLAB Online and MATLAB Mobile were restored on Friday.
MathWorks stated in a Tuesday update that the issue was still being investigated. Several pages on the MathWorks website are still offline. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Verizon's comprehensive data breach report released last month revealed that ransomware was utilised in nearly half of the 12,195 confirmed data breaches in 2024. The researchers discovered that 64% of ransomware victims did not pay the ransoms, up from 50% two years ago, and the typical amount paid to ransomware groups has dropped to $115,000 (down from $150,000 last year).
“This could be partially responsible for the declining ransom amounts. Ransomware is also disproportionately affecting small organizations,” the researchers noted. “In larger organizations, ransomware is a component of 39% of breaches, while small and medium-sized businesses experienced ransomware-related breaches to the tune of 88% overall.”
The number of large ransoms paid has also reduced, with Verizon estimating that 95% of ransoms paid will be less than $3 million by 2024. That value is a significant increase above the $9.9 million recorded in 2023.