Starbucks affected by cyber attack on software provider
A ransomware attack on a supply chain management specialist is causing problems for Starbucks and other retail chains.
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A ransomware attack on the US software manufacturer Blue Yonder affected the operations of Starbucks and major British food retailers last week. This was reported on Monday by the US daily newspaper Wall Street Journal. Blue Yonder belongs to the Japanese conglomerate Panasonic. The company is one of the world's largest providers of supply chain technology. It produces software that can be used to monitor processes ranging from warehouse and transportation management to the processing of returns.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, last week's attack disrupted systems that Blue Yonder hosts for its customers. The US coffee house chain Starbucks stated that company-owned stores in North America were affected by the ransomware attack. In particular, wage payments and the recording of employee working hours were affected. The company had to switch to manual processes.
Other companies affected
The US car manufacturer Ford Motor also claims to use Blue Yonder software. Investigations into the impact of the cyber attack are still ongoing. Sainsbury's and Morrisons, two of the UK's largest grocery chains, were primarily affected by the outage of stock management systems for fresh food and produce. They maintained their operations through backup plans. According to the Wall Street Journal, Dutch supermarket group Ahold Delhaize, which owns several grocery chains, announced a "cybersecurity issue" in its US network in early November. The incident led to product outages in stores in the north-east of the USA for almost two weeks.
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Blue Yonder reported "disruptions in the hosted managed services environment due to a ransomware incident" on November 21. Since becoming aware of the incident, the company has been working with external cybersecurity firms to make progress on recovery. "We have implemented several defensive and forensic protocols. The experts and the Blue Yonder team are working on various recovery strategies and the investigation is ongoing," Blue Yonder said in a public statement. On Monday, the company said it was working to restore its services, but did not give a timeline.
(akn)
