What just happened? Wearables giant Garmin has been hit with a ransomware attack that forced it to close call centers, websites, and some other online services. The company’s data-syncing Garmin Connect service remains down, meaning users have been unable to share their exercise activities or create new running or cycling routes.
The attack has affected vast swathes of the company, which hasn’t officially revealed it to be ransomware. The firm’s employees have described it as such on social media, attributing it to the new strain that appeared earlier this year, called WastedLocker, reports ZDNet.
Garmin said the outage has also impacted its call centers, leaving them unable to receive calls, emails, or online chats. It even affected Garmin’s aviation database services, flyGarmin, which supports aviation navigational equipment, and some production lines in Asia.
Pilots told ZDNet they were unable to download the latest version of Garmin’s aviation database to their Garmin airplane navigation systems, which the FAA says is a legal requirement for flying. The Garmin Pilot app, used to schedule and plan flights, was also down.
Taiwanese tech news site iThome published an internal memo sent from Garmin’s IT staff to its Taiwan factories announcing two days of maintenance for Friday and Saturday, the result of a “virus.”
Garmin hasn’t said if any customer data was compromised. It’s not usually an element of ransomware attacks, but recent incidents, such as the one on Travelex, have seen customer information stolen alongside file encryption.
The Garmin.com website is up, but trying to sign into the Garmin Connect site shows a banner apologizing for the outage.
