Garmin hacked with hackers allegedly demanded 10 million
Wed 29th July 2020 - Garmin Hacked
Late last week Garmin was forced to close its call centres, websites, mobile app and online services after a cyberattack last week in which hackers allegedly demanded 10 million (£7.79m) to get its systems back online.
Owners of Garmin’s products had been unable to use its services since Thursday (23rd August 2020).
From Tuesday of this week many of online tools are now being provided in a "limited" state, according to its online dashboard they publicly display.
Garmin have stated that it was "the victim of a cyber-attack that encrypted some of our systems".
No indication of customer data stolen - Garmin Hacked
There was no indication that any customer data, including payment information from Garmin Pay, was accessed, lost or stolen.
Many of the Garmin services have come back online but a number of the services, including the connect app still are displaying a ‘server maintenance’ message (Wednesday 29th July 2020).
Garmin paid the blackmailers?
It is not known if Garmin paid the blackmailers.
Malware involved in Garmin breach
The malware involved in the breach of Garmin’s security software was Wasted Locker - a program that scrambles the target's data and was first detected in the wild around April. Victims are typically contacted after their computers are infected and told they must transfer funds if they want to return the files to their original state.
Many thanks for your patience.
Many of the GPS Training customers have already reported that Garmin's services appear to be "partially" working again.
To all the people who have contacted us regarding this, many thanks for your patience and understanding.
Further reading
1. Galileo Satellite system - post Brexit
2. Device accuracy - why does my GPS show different results to my friends?