Sobeys, the second-largest supermarket chain in Canada, was the victim of a ransomware attack conducted by the Black Basta gang.
It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited, a Canadian business conglomerate. During the last week, grocery stores and pharmacies belonging to the company have experienced IT issues.
“The Company’s grocery stores remain open to serve customers and are not experiencing significant disruptions at this time. However, some in-store services are functioning intermittently or with a delay. In addition, certain of the Company’s pharmacies are experiencing technical difficulties in fulfilling prescriptions.” reads a statement published by Empire.
Sobeys also published a notice to inform customers of the IT problems that it is suffering.
“Our stores are currently experiencing systems issues that are affecting some of the services offered. All our stores remain open to serve you and are not experiencing significant disruptions at this time. While some in-store services are functioning intermittently or with a delay, we are pleased to note that our pharmacy network is now able to operate fully.” reads the notice.
Payment systems were not impacted because they were likely hosted on a separate infrastructure.
At this time the company has yet to confirm a data breach, but local media reported that two provincial privacy watchdogs had received data breach reports from Sobeys.
