Data giant Alation confirms cyberattack following system incident

Days after reporting an incident affecting a number of its customers, enterprise data giant Alation on Thursday confirmed a cyberattack.

Alation makes data software that its enterprise customers use to search for files and data using natural language queries. In recent years, the company has expanded into AI, allowing customers to turn large amounts of messy data into usable content. The company says it services more than 500 global companies, including around half of the Fortune 1000 largest companies in the United States.

When reached by TechCrunch about the incident, the company said it was investigating.

“Alation recently identified an isolated incident involving unauthorized activity in one of its systems,” the company said in a statement provided to TechCrunch by an external representative, Stephen Russell. “We are conducting a thorough investigation of what occurred and we will provide additional information as appropriate.”

Alation did not specify the nature of the cyberattack, mention the root cause of the incident, or say how many customers are affected. The company did not say if it had alerted its customers to the incident or what defensive actions, if any, they should take following the intrusion.

On Tuesday, Alation reported an unspecified incident that resulted in “degraded availability” for some of its customers. The company said it had resolved the incident within an hour.

Much of the company’s systems are hosted on Amazon Web Services. It’s not immediately clear if any data was stolen or exfiltrated during the incident.

This is the latest cybersecurity incident in recent weeks to affect a large-scale technology giant, as hackers increasingly target companies that store large amounts of sensitive or proprietary information for their corporate customers.

Earlier this month, several companies reported data thefts following a breach at European shipping giant Ceva Logistics. Hackers are also said to be targeting financial firms and private equity giants in recent weeks.