Garmin Says Outage Doesn’t Affect Payment Data

The ability of hackers to disrupt connected devices was on display over the weekend with Garmin Ltd., a major purveyor of fitness trackers, smart watches and related tech gear, including products that can make contactless payments, reporting service interruptions that some observers say have been caused by a ransomware attack.

Garmin, however, has not confirmed the method or source of the attack, and says no payment data have been compromised. The disruption reportedly began in the middle of last week. Services affected by the outage include Garmin Connect, a cloud-based system for users to track their fitness activity and share it with other users.

“As a result of the outage, some features and services across these platforms are unavailable to customers,” a post on Garmin’s Web site said Monday morning. “Additionally, our product-support call centers are affected by the outage and as a result, we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats. We are working to restore our systems as quickly as possible and apologize for the inconvenience. Additional updates will be provided as they become available.”

In a brief frequently asked questions section of the post, Olathe, Kan.-based Garmin said, “It has no indication that this outage has affected your data, including activity, payment, or other personal information.”

Citing anonymous sources, the TechCrunch news service reported that the so-called WastedLocker ransomware caused the outage. WastedLocker is a new type of ransomware reportedly used by a malware gang known as Evil Corp, according to Malwarebytes, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based tech firm that tracks and fights malware.

If the attack does affect payments, it could put a damper on a promising new market for mobile contactless transactions with devices other than smart phones and cards. The Garmin Pay wallet supports cards issued on the Visa, Mastercard and Discover networks by scores of banks and credit unions.