You might recall that Canadian pharmacy chain London Drugs was pwned in some sort of cyberattack. It’s not clear what kind of attack it was. But it was clearly bad enough that it forced the chain to close all their stores. Which is of course a non trivial event. Over the weekend news surfaced that some stores were starting to reopen:
London Drugs is gradually reopening its stores across Western Canada, six days after it shuttered all locations due to a “cybersecurity incident,” the retail and pharmacy chain said.
It is working with its nearly 80 stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba individually to get them up and running, said the retailer, headquartered in Richmond, a suburban city about 16 kilometres south of Vancouver.
“We ask for patience as we work with each store to ensure it is operating fully to meet the needs of our customers, and therefore we will not be communicating which stores are opening and when,” London Drugs said in a Saturday statement. “No interviews will be conducted at this time.”
“We are continuing to work with our third-party cybersecurity experts to bring our systems online in a safe and secure manner,” the company said.
Opening stores six days after getting pwned is quick.
In the above statement they say that they’re working with a third party. Which I assume is a Mandiant or an organization similar to that. So it goes without saying that they are taking their advice on that. I could, and I emphasize could also mean that London Drugs had a mitigation strategy in place so that in the event of something like this, they could reopen quickly. If that’s true, then that’s very good on them. There is the possibility that this attack could have been less severe than we all assumed. Which is a good thing.
But that’s where my glass half full view ends. There is the possibility that they paid the ransom based on the fact that I am making the assumption that this is ransomware. And regardless of how quick London Drugs got back on its feet, there’s still the question regarding the data of their customers and if anything was stolen. London Drugs hasn’t said anything about that, but that has to be on the table. So while London Drugs is making positive steps to getting back to normal, it’s not all sunshine and roses.
My advice is to watch this situation carefully in the coming days and weeks. Especially if you get you prescriptions at London Drugs. Because this incident is far from over.
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This entry was posted on May 6, 2024 at 8:17 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked, London Drugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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London Drugs Starts To Reopen Stores After Getting Pwned
You might recall that Canadian pharmacy chain London Drugs was pwned in some sort of cyberattack. It’s not clear what kind of attack it was. But it was clearly bad enough that it forced the chain to close all their stores. Which is of course a non trivial event. Over the weekend news surfaced that some stores were starting to reopen:
London Drugs is gradually reopening its stores across Western Canada, six days after it shuttered all locations due to a “cybersecurity incident,” the retail and pharmacy chain said.
It is working with its nearly 80 stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba individually to get them up and running, said the retailer, headquartered in Richmond, a suburban city about 16 kilometres south of Vancouver.
“We ask for patience as we work with each store to ensure it is operating fully to meet the needs of our customers, and therefore we will not be communicating which stores are opening and when,” London Drugs said in a Saturday statement. “No interviews will be conducted at this time.”
“We are continuing to work with our third-party cybersecurity experts to bring our systems online in a safe and secure manner,” the company said.
Opening stores six days after getting pwned is quick.
In the above statement they say that they’re working with a third party. Which I assume is a Mandiant or an organization similar to that. So it goes without saying that they are taking their advice on that. I could, and I emphasize could also mean that London Drugs had a mitigation strategy in place so that in the event of something like this, they could reopen quickly. If that’s true, then that’s very good on them. There is the possibility that this attack could have been less severe than we all assumed. Which is a good thing.
But that’s where my glass half full view ends. There is the possibility that they paid the ransom based on the fact that I am making the assumption that this is ransomware. And regardless of how quick London Drugs got back on its feet, there’s still the question regarding the data of their customers and if anything was stolen. London Drugs hasn’t said anything about that, but that has to be on the table. So while London Drugs is making positive steps to getting back to normal, it’s not all sunshine and roses.
My advice is to watch this situation carefully in the coming days and weeks. Especially if you get you prescriptions at London Drugs. Because this incident is far from over.
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This entry was posted on May 6, 2024 at 8:17 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked, London Drugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.