“We have no indication that any customer data, including payment information from Garmin Pay, was accessed, lost or stolen.”
Garmin confirmed today it was the victim of a cyber attack on July 23rd that led to a massive outage for the company’s wearable fitness tracking services.
“The functionality of Garmin products was not affected, other than the ability to access online services. Affected systems are being restored and we expect to return to normal operation over the next few days.”
The Verge reports Garmin was hit with a new strain of ransomware called WastedLocker, which is operated by the hacker group known as Evil Corp. The attack encypts data but doesn’t exfiltrate it, allowing affected systems to be recovered from backups without having to pay a ransom. Garmin has not said one way or the other whether the company paid anything in response to the reported ransomware attack but there are plenty of humors floating around that they did. We may never get the real story but for now everything is getting back in order although customers should expect some delays as the backlog of information is being processed.
Garmin made this press release addressing the attack:
Garmin Ltd. 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. Affected systems are being restored and we expect to return to normal operation over the next few days.
As our affected systems are restored, we expect some delays as the backlog of information is being processed. We are grateful for our customers’ patience and understanding during this incident and look forward to continuing to provide the exceptional customer service and support that has been our hallmark and tradition.
Q: When will I be able to sync my Garmin device with Garmin Connect
We are happy to report that Garmin Connect recovery is underway. We’d like to thank you for your understanding and patience as we restore normal operations. The status of Garmin Connect can be found here.
Q: Was any Garmin Connect customer data lost during the outage?
Although Garmin Connect was not accessible during the outage, activity and health and wellness data collected from Garmin devices during the outage was stored on the device and we anticipate that all data will appear in Garmin Connect once the user syncs their device.
Q: Was my data impacted as a result of the outage?
We have no indication that any customer data, including payment information from Garmin Pay, was accessed, lost or stolen.
Q: I’m an inReach customer. Is SOS and messaging functional?
inReach SOS and messaging remained fully functional and were not impacted by the outage. This includes the MapShare website and email reply page. The status for inReach can be found here.
Q: Are Garmin Aviation systems fully functional?
Garmin Aviation systems are fully functional. This includes Garmin Pilot Apps, flyGarmin, Connext Services, FltPlan.com.
The status for aviation can be found here.
