Garmin outage enters sixth day after ransomware attack
A suspected ransomware attack on wearable fitness tech firm Garmin has caused an outage that has now left users without access to its services for six days.
The outage first began last Wednesday, with users reporting being unable to sync their devices with the Garmin app.
Following the attack Garmin shut down most of its services on Thursday — including its official website and customer services, including all phone lines, online chat tools and email.
It also shut off the Garmin Connect service, affecting Garmin Watch users who were unable to connect their devices to the company’s smartphone app to track their fitness performance after the attack.
Garmin has yet to confirm what caused the outage, however employees have said on Twitter it was the result of a ransomware attack which encrypted its services.
Users who try to sync their devices with the Garmin app are currently being faced with a maintenance message.
Some staff told ZDNet last week that Garmin was planning a “multi-day” period of maintenance to get to grips with the outage. But so far the firm has yet to provide a date for when it will come back online.
A note on Garmin’s website says:
Garmin is currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin services including Garmin Connect. As a result of the outage, some features and services across these platforms are unavailable to customers. Additionally, our product support call centres are affected by the outage and as a result, we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats.
We are working to restore our systems as quickly as possible and apologise for the inconvenience. Additional updates will be provided as they become available.
Garmin, 27 July 2020
Garmin said it is not aware of any customer data being affected by the outage.
Garmin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.