Garmin shuts down as ransomware attack causes outage
Garmin has been forced to shut down some of its operations after a ransomware attack caused an outage that left its fitness devices disconnected for almost a day.
The wearable sports technology maker shut down services including its official website and customer services, including all phone lines, online chat tools and email.
It also shut off the Garmin Connect service, affecting Garmin Watch users who were unable to connect their devices to the company’s smartphone app to track their fitness performance after the attack.
“We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin.com and Garmin Connect,” the company said.
“This outage also affects our call centres and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologise for this inconvenience.”
Garmin did not say what caused the outage, or if any customer data has been affected.
However a number of Garmin employees told ZDNet that the attack used a strain of ransomware called WastedLocker to take down the services.
Similarly an internal memo from Garmin’s IT staff in Taiwan, reviewed by iThome, said Garmin’s Taiwan data arms will be down for two days of maintenance to deal with a “virus”.
ZDNet said Garmin is currently planning a multi-day maintenance window to deal with the attack’s aftermath.
Ransomware has risen in popularity with cybercriminals in recent years, with data from Sonicwall showing the frequency of attacks rising at a rate of 20 per cent in 2020 alone.
“The concern is whether or not data was stolen at the time where the ransomware was installed,” said Javvad Malik, a security awareness expert at Knowbe4.
“Wearable devices gather a lot of information about their owners, and having this data stolen could have wide-ranging implications.”