Ransomware hack knocks Garmin’s marine services offline
Garmin chartplotters and smartwatches are taken off the air as the company tries to fix its hacked serversMarine chartplotter and autopilot products maker Garmin has shut down its online operations as it deals with a crippling ransomware attack.
The move, which effectively pulls its flagship Garmin Connect service off the air as it attempts to rebuild its website, affects any of its devices that rely on the internet to exchange data.
According to Garmin, the outage has also affected call centres, with the company also unable to answer phone calls and emails, and manage the online chat forums it uses for its support services.
On Friday, the company scheduled two days of maintenance to try and resolve the problem, blocking access to most of its website.
Garmin Connect allows boat owners to synchronise data with its range of smartwatches via the ActiveCaptain app. Users are currently unable to log in and use the service. New owners trying to set up their devices for the first time also reported problems.
As of this morning, the service was still not available in Australia. However, users reported problems on various boating forums when their devices could not connect to Garmin’s servers via the ActiveCaptain app.
Maps affected
The ActiveCaptain app also allows users to connect with their Garmin chartplotter to buy and download maps, and to also exchange information with other ActiveCaptain users.
Garmin owners can also plot a day’s course on a compatible device and then upload them to the chartplotter.
The app also allows users to share soundings with other ActiveCaptain users; handy for when users are visiting an unfamiliar harbour with little chartplotter data available.
In a statement on the company’s website, Garmin said it was trying to resolve the outage “as quickly as possible”, and apologised for the inconvenience.
Garmin said any data generated by affected devices would be stored on the device and uploaded once the Garmin Connect service was restored.
More importantly, Garmin said it had “no indication that this outage has affected your data, including activity, payment or other personal information”.
No more details about the outage are available.
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