Zoho shut down after a phishing attack that impacted 30 million users

• The downtime resulted in 30 million Zoho users unable to access the site for over two hours.
• India-based software provider Zoho is one of the largest tech companies in the world.

Zoho’s website was taken offline for around two hours after the company’s domain registrar, TierraNet, received complaints about phishing attacks.India-based software provider Zoho is one of the largest tech companies in the world.

Zoho’s downtime resulted in 30 million Zoho users unable to access the site for over two hours. TierraNet reportedly said that it received repeated complaints alleging that cybercriminals were using Zoho’s mail service to send phishing emails. TierraNet suspended Zoho’s domain after the software provider failed to resolve the issue on time, despite having been warned repeatedly, ZDNet reported.

The sudden shutdown reportedly caused a panic at Zoho’s offices, with the firm’s staff and CEO taking to Twitter to request help in contacting TierraNet’s executives regarding the domain takedown.

Zoho denies not responding

Zoho rejected TierraNet’s accusation of not resolving the issue, adding that the firm had responded to 2 out of 3 complaints that it received in the last 2 months.

"There were a total of 3 complaints in 2 months and we took action on 2 of them immediately and one is a pending investigation. We serve 40 million users. 3 complaints in 2 months," Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu stated in a tweet.

The issue was eventually resolved and TierraNet finally reactivated the Zoho domain. In the meantime, Zoho has recommended the users to use either Google or Cloudflare’s free DNS service, if they are unable to access the company’s site.

“For customers who're still experiencing issues, please try modifying your DNS settings to 8.8.8.8 (Google DNS) or 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare DNS). This should resolve these issues,” said Zoho in a tweet with an instruction page.