A cyberattack on a third-party software vendor used by Starbucks has disrupted employees’ ability to view and manage their schedules and track their hours.
Managers have been working on a manual solution to record employees’ hours so they can accurately calculate their pay and help them manage their schedules, the company told CNBC on Nov. 25.
The ransomware attack, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, did not impact Starbucks’ ability to serve customers at its approximately 11,000 locations in North America, the company said. Starbucks added that the company is working with the supplier on a solution.
Starbucks did not name the supplier. However, the disruption comes in the wake of Blue Yonder, an Arizona-based division of Panasonic that sells supply chain software to Fortune 500 companies including Starbucks, saying in a press release on November 22 that it suffered a ransomware attack a day earlier experienced.
“Blue Yonder experienced disruptions in the hosted environment of its managed services, which were determined to be the result of a ransomware incident,” the company said.
Ransomware is malicious software used by criminals to prevent people from accessing computer files, systems or networks. According to the FBI, the bad actors then demand ransoms to regain access.
According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ransomware attacks worldwide increased this year through June 2024 compared to the first six months of 2023. 2,321 attacks were reported between January and June 2024, mostly in the commercial sector, reported the agency.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
