Garmin outage caused by confirmed ransomware attack
18:41
Wearable device maker Garmin shut down some of its connected services and call centers on Thursday following what the company called a worldwide outage, now confirmed to be caused by a WastedLocker ransomware attack.
Garmin's product line includes GPS navigation and wearable technology for the automotive, marine, aviation, marine, fitness, and outdoor markets.
"We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin.com and Garmin Connect," an outage update notification published on the company's newsroom says.
"This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience."
While Garmin didn't mention it in their outage alert, multiple flyGarmin services used by aircraft pilots are also down, including the flyGarmin website and mobile app, Connext Services (weather, CMC, and position reports) and Garmin Pilot Apps (Flight plan filing unless connected to FltPlan, account syncing, and database concierge).
A source close to the Garmin incident response and a Garmin employee confirmed to BleepingComputer that the WastedLocker ransomware attacked Garmin. IiThome also published a report on a Garmin internal memo earlier about a 'virus' attack affecting the company's internal IT servers and databases that caused Garmin Taiwan factories to shut down production lines for two days (on July 24 and 25th).
BleepingComputer was told by one of the sources that the attackers are demanding a $10 million ransom. BleepingComputer has not been able to verify this amount independently.
