GPS company Garmin is the latest high-profile organization to be the victim of a major ransomware attack.
Garmin’s customers experienced widespread outages, with some having far-reaching consequences. For example, pilots that rely on flyGarmin lost the ability to download up-to-date aviation information, effectively grounding them unless they could use an alternative option.
The company has said “it was the victim of a cyber attack that encrypted some of our systems on July 23, 2020. As a result, many of our online services were interrupted including website functions, customer support, customer facing applications, and company communications. We immediately began to assess the nature of the attack and started remediation. We have no indication that any customer data, including payment information from Garmin Pay™, was accessed, lost or stolen. Additionally, the functionality of Garmin products was not affected, other than the ability to access online services.”
Beyond that, Garmin is not disclosing many additional details, including whether they paid the ransom or were able to begin decrypting their systems through other means. In fact, Garmin is only describing the incident as a “cyber attack” although, as the BBC points out, multiple outlets have confirmed it was indeed a ransomware attack.
Garmin says its services should be up and running within a few days, although there may be some delays as the company catches up on the information backlog.