Garmin Says Outage Continues but User Data ‘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 data, including activity, payment or other personal information,” the corporate stated on its web site.

It added: “Although Garmin Connect is not accessible during the outage, activity and health and wellness data collected from Garmin devices during the outage is stored on the device and will appear in Garmin Connect once the user syncs their device.”

Garmin Connect is a well being and health tracker.

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

While Garmin has but to clarify the nature of the outage, specialised websites have speculated that the corporate fell sufferer to a so-called ransomware assault, wherein hackers block a sufferer’s entry to its personal knowledge except a ransom is paid.

The firm’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, which means the group is unable to answer prospects’ telephone calls, emails or on-line chats.

Specialized web site ZDNet reported that after the incident started early Thursday, “several Garmin employees took to social media to share details about the attack, all calling it a ransomware attack.”

It added: “ZDNet has interviewed several and confirmed their claims.”