Kiteworks to Customers: Please Turn Off Your Systems This Weekend
Kiteworks told customers on September 25, 2026, to turn off their Kiteworks systems because a cyberattack may happen soon. The company asked managers to take systems offline before the weekend, if not sooner. TechCrunch
Security chief Frank Balonis said the warning came from law enforcement. That information said hackers may try to attack some customer systems. Kiteworks said the shutdown would give it and its law enforcement partners time to work through the matter.
Kiteworks said it does not know of any break-in to its systems. It said this warning is prevention, not a response to a confirmed attack.
The September 25 email warned about possible zero-day attacks. That means attacks that use hidden flaws the company does not know about yet, like a lock with a defect no one has found.
The company said it has fixed all known problems in version 9.5.1 and all customers should use that version. The fix covers known problems. The shutdown covers the extra risk from unknown problems.
For customers in Central Europe, Kiteworks gave an exact time. It recommended turning off all systems on Saturday, September 26, from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. heise online
Kiteworks, once called Accellion, makes tools for sending large and private files over the internet. Customers usually run these systems themselves. That is why the message was sent to customer managers and their maintenance windows.
The broader context here is why this request matters. Turning systems off stops normal work. File sharing, exchanges with partners and movement of data inside a company all pause. For teams that work day and night, even six hours means saving work for later, telling others about the pause and checking everything on restart. In my view, a company does not ask for that kind of trouble without strong reason, which tells us the police warning was taken very seriously.
Looking ahead for those protecting these systems, there is no clear sign to search for and no other fix to install. What can be checked is the version number and the network connection. Disconnect, confirm version 9.5.1, limit outside access on restart, and watch logins and outgoing data closely when service returns. Worth flagging for the future, setups that can separate file sharing from other work will handle warnings like this with less disruption, and that separation is best built before it is needed.
