About 11,000 Starbucks stores in North America have been hit by a ransomware attack on one of its largest IT providers. Two supermarket chains in the UK have also been hit by the breach, and carmaker Ford says it is trying to determine whether its own operations have been affected …
The WSJ reports that the attack targeted Blue Yonder, a large IT services company with a blue-chip client base.
Coffee drinkers will be pleased to know that the attack did not disrupt in-store sales, as only internal processes were affected.
Starbucks said Monday that a ransomware attack has affected company-owned stores across its network of about 11,000 locations in North America. This has disrupted the coffee chain's ability to pay baristas and manage their schedules, forcing cafe managers to manually calculate staff salaries.
Starbucks currently pays staff for their scheduled shifts, meaning they may be overpaid or underpaid depending on the hours they actually work. The company said it would eventually ensure baristas are paid for all hours they work.
British supermarkets Sainsbury's and Morrisons have also been affected.
Morrisons, which has about 1,600 convenience stores and 500 supermarkets across the UK, said the outage had affected its fresh food and vegetable warehouse management systems. “We are currently operating satisfactorily on our back-up systems and working hard to ensure deliveries to our customers across the country,” a Morrisons spokesman said.
Sainsbury's, which has 600 supermarkets and more than 800 convenience stores across the UK, said it was in “close contact” with Blue Yonder and had put in place contingency procedures.
Ford said it was also a Blue Yonder customer but was not yet sure whether its own operations had been affected.
Photo by Aral Tasher on Unsplash
