Canadian Bookstore Indigo Suffers Cyberattack; Shuts Down Website

Customers of the largest bookstore chain in Canada might want to be more careful in the immediate future.

Canadian bookstore chain Indigo recently announced it suffered a cyberattack, prompting them to shut its website down to investigate what had happened.

Indigo didn't mention when its website will be back online again.

Indigo Bookstore Cyberattack Details

Indigo mentioned in its announcement that "technical issues" were preventing people from accessing its website, per Bleeping Computer. The company posted this announcement on its website in a manner that prevented people from further accessing its website.

However, what's odd about it was that physical stores could only accept payments in cash when it came up, meaning that debit and credit cards, along with gift card transactions, were not possible.

The reason behind Indigo's website being inaccessible is more than just "technical issues." According to David Masson, director of enterprise security at Darktrace, a cybersecurity firm, the company experienced a ransomware attack that knocked out its point-of-sale system and prevented the company from taking returns, per the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This incapacity means that Indigo couldn't bring its stock back into its system.

Masson added that if only a small part of Indigo went down, it is probably not ransomware affecting their system. However, if the cyberattack's impact is more widespread, then ransomware may be behind what happened.

"[Ransomware] really does muck up your organization, and it's not going to get fixed in a few hours," Masson said.

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However, Indigo mentioned in its latest announcement that it experienced a cybersecurity incident and is working with third-party experts to investigate and resolve the situation.

As of press time, Indigo is trying to determine if the cybercriminals managed to gain access to and/or steal customer data.

Regardless, the company was hoping to bring its systems back online as soon as it could. However, in the meantime, people will have to go to the company's physical stores and purchase their books from there using cash.

BNNBloomberg, citing a report from The Canadian Press, reported that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is aware of Indigo's cyberattack and is in communication with the company to obtain more information, such as a formal breach report, and to determine the next steps.

What Indigo Customers Should Look Out For

Indigo isn't the only Canadian company affected by ransomware if it indeed was. Sobey's parent company Empire Co. Ltd. recently experienced a data breach that shut down its pharmacy services and other in-store functions.

The attack cost the company $25 million after insurance, though it declined to reveal the total cost of the disruption, per CTV News.

Regardless, customers should be on the lookout for fraud, spear phishing attempts, tracking, and even unwanted contact at their homes if the hackers managed to steal customer data and personal information from Indigo's servers.