Starbucks has been hit by a ransomware attack via a third-party software provider that's affecting operations at roughly 11,000 stores in the United States.
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The attack has impacted Starbucks' ability to track baristas' hours and manage their pay, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the outage.
For the time being, restaurants have been instructed to manually track how many hours employees have worked.
Luckily for customers, the attack is not impacting Starbucks from being able to serve their signature drinks and snacks in its cafes.
The attack was carried out against Blue Yonder, a supply-chain management platform that's used by numerous grocery stores and retailers in the US and UK.
Blue Yonder reported the ransomware incident on November 21, saying the attack disrupted its ability to handle payroll, scheduling and other cloud computing services.
Blue Yonder said it is working with external cybersecurity firms to recover from the hack. The company is still working to restore services, but no timetable has been provided. It's also unclear who the attackers are or if any data was lost.
Ransomware attacks often target organizations during holiday weekends when defenses are weaker, with 86% of attacks occurring on weekends or holidays, according to a report by cybersecurity firm Semperis.
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