Ransomware attack targets Blue Yonder and hits Starbucks

Supply chain management software provider Blue Yonder has reportedly been hit by a ransomware attack, affecting customers including Starbucks and British supermarket chain Morrisons.

Blue Yonder’s systems were disrupted by a “ransomware incident” on Thursday (Nov. 21) and said Monday (Nov. 25) that it will continue to communicate with customers about the incident, Bloomberg reported Monday.

“Since learning of the incident, the Blue Yonder team has been working diligently with third-party cybersecurity firms to make progress in their recovery process,” company spokesperson Marina Renneke said in the report. “We have implemented several defensive and forensic protocols.”

The report states that Starbucks, which uses Blue Yonder software to schedule shifts and track the hours of store employees in North America, has had to use pen and paper for these tasks – although the cyber incident has had no impact on customer service or the coffee retailer’s shop. o’clock.

At Morrison’s, the incident affected warehouse management systems, but the supermarket chain’s stores are now running on backup systems, according to the report. Similarly, Sainsbury’s and Asda said they used Blue Yonder but had backup systems in place.

Blue Yonder said Monday it did not know when services would be restored, the Wall Street Journal reported.

These reports come about two weeks after grocery giant Ahold Delhaize said some of its pharmacies and e-commerce operations were affected by a cybersecurity vulnerability within its U.S. network and the company’s mitigation measures.

Ahold Delhaize said at the time that its security teams began an investigation with the help of third-party cybersecurity firms that would immediately detect the problem, that it had notified law enforcement and that its teams were taking steps to assess and mitigate the problem.

With cyberattacks possible on a scale that many companies may not be able to withstand, companies must prioritize top-down security, PYMNTS reported Nov. 13.

“The barrier to entry has never been lower for threat actors,” Sunil Mallik, Chief Information Security Officer of Discover® Global Network, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in July.

In particular, the increasing prevalence of ransomware attacks is forcing companies of all shapes and sizes to rethink their cybersecurity strategies.