Software major Kiteworks told its customers to shut down their systems temporarily for 9 hours over the weekend. This was in response to the organization getting information about possible hacking activity. For your knowledge, Kiteworks specializes in developing tools to transfer large files over the internet.

Company Statement

Frank Balonis, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Kiteworks stated “Kiteworks received credible threat intelligence from federal intelligence authorities indicating that a threat actor may attempt to target some Kiteworks systems,”.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we notified customers directly and recommended a precautionary shutdown window while we continue to work through the matter with federal intelligence authorities.” The advisory by Kiteworks was preventative. There was no evidence of any compromise or exploitation. The threat was thought to involve a potential zero-day vulnerability affecting each of the deployment models and versions of the Kiteworks platform. The advisory was lifted on September 27, 2026 after the risk window had passed.

No Information about the Identity of Potential Hackers

The measure was first reported by German news agency Heise. Kiteworks did not reveal the name of the law enforcement organization that alerted the former. Also, no information was forthcoming about the potential cyber attackers. Kiteworks stated that all known vulnerabilities had been resolved in its latest software version, 9.5.1. The former urged customer to apply the patches for complete protection.

SOURCES:-

https://thehackernews.com/2026/09/kiteworks-urges-customers-to-shut-down.html

https://www.rescana.com/post/kiteworks-precautionary-shutdown-advisory-zero-day-threat-prompts-9-hour-service-disruption-across-all-deployment-models

https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/25/kiteworks-urges-customers-to-shut-down-their-servers-amid-imminent-threat-of-cyberattack/

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Imminent-Zero-Day-Attack-KiteWorks-Urges-Customers-to-Shut-Down-Servers-11466375.html

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/kiteworks-urges-6-hour-server-shutdown-over-potential-zero-day-attacks/