Garmin Says Outage Continues however Consumer Information ‘Not Affected’

Garmin stated Saturday that consumer knowledge from the corporate’s smartwatch and GPS providers — offline since Thursday — has not been compromised, regardless of fears of a ransomware assault.

“Garmin has no indication that this outage has affected your knowledge, together with exercise, cost or different private info,” the corporate stated on its web site.

It added: “Though Garmin Join shouldn’t be accessible throughout the outage, exercise and well being and wellness knowledge collected from Garmin units throughout the outage is saved on the gadget and can seem in Garmin Join as soon as the consumer syncs their gadget.”

Garmin Join is a well being and health tracker.

The group, primarily based in Olathe, Kansas, stated it was working to revive service as rapidly as attainable.

Whereas Garmin has but to elucidate the nature of the outage, specialised websites have speculated that the corporate fell sufferer to a so-called ransomware assault, through which hackers block a sufferer’s entry to its personal knowledge until a ransom is paid.

The corporate’s Garmin Pilot software, utilized by pilots to plan flights, has additionally been blocked, as has the flyGarmin aviation database service.

The outage has affected Garmin’s name facilities, that means the group is unable to reply to prospects’ cellphone calls, emails or on-line chats.

Specialised web site ZDNet reported that after the incident started early Thursday, “a number of Garmin staff took to social media to share particulars concerning the assault, all calling it a ransomware assault.”

It added: “ZDNet has interviewed a number of and confirmed their claims.”