Kwik Trip released a statement regarding an ongoing outage, indirectly confirming that the problems were caused by a cyberattack.
Kwik Trip is a chain of more than 800 convenience stores and gas stations in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, also operating under the Kwik Star in Illinois, Iowa and South Dakota.
Since October 8, Kwik Trip/Kwik Star has been experiencing IT issues that have affected many of its systems, including Kwik Rewards programs, systems , phones, and emails.
According to Kwik Trip's initial statement last week, the outage was caused by a "network incident."
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“As many of you know, we are currently working on a network that has caused an outage on some of our systems,” X, formerly of Twitter, said in a statement.
However, a new statement from Kwik Trip yesterday indirectly confirms that there was a cyberattack, as there is a question in the “Frequently Asked Questions” section about a possible breach of customer data. Of course, Kwik Trip says that it has hired security experts and that so far there is no evidence to suggest that any data has been stolen.
But this question and answer indicate that there was a cyberattack and that its effects are now being examined.
“While we are still experiencing disruptions to the Kwik Rewards Program, our retail and customer service systems are not impacted,” Kwik Trips’ new statement also states.
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“We are now thoroughly investigating the incident with third-party information security experts. We will provide further updates and information as needed, but so far we have no evidence that anyone's personal or confidential information has been obtained by an unauthorized person.“.
BleepingComputer says that Kwik Trip customers and employees are frustrated by the company's lack of transparency and are concerned that data may have been stolen.
In any case, all Kwik Trip customers and employees should be cautious of alleged communications with Kwik Trip via phone, email and text messages and check credit card transactions for possible fraudulent activity.
Let's hope that there really wasn't a data, as these types of breaches are among the most common today and can have devastating consequences.
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Economic Impact
A data breach can cause financial losses for an organization. The costs of repairing and dealing with the effects of a breach can be significant, including the cost of restoring the damage, the cost of destroying and restoring data, as well as potential fines from authorities or compensation to customers.
Theft of customer personal data
A data breach is tantamount to a privacy breach , as important personal information, identity details , and banking details can be stolen which could lead to further attacks.
Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com
