Indigo investigating ongoing cybersecurity incident as its website remains offline

CTV National News: Indigo refuses to pay ransom Heather Wright reports on bookseller Indigo refusing to pay a ransom to hackers who accessed employee data three weeks ago.

TORONTO — Indigo Books & Music Inc. is continuing to investigate what it calls a "cybersecurity incident" affecting its website and electronic payment systems in stores.

The company says it's working with third-party experts to investigate and resolve the situation and hopes to have its systems back online as soon as possible.

In the meantime, the company says it can process orders paid for by cash in its stores, but it cannot process electronic payments, accept gift cards or handle returns.

Toronto-based Indigo first reported the "technical issues" in a message shared on social media Wednesday afternoon.

In response to customer questions about the service outage on Twitter, the company said it's working to restore its systems and to "understand if customer data has been accessed."

Indigo also said customers that recently purchased items online may experience delays with part or all of their order.

Canadian retailers have increasingly experienced cyberattacks in recent months.

Sobeys parent company Empire Co. Ltd. recently grappled with a security breach that shut down its pharmacy services and other in-store functions.

The cybersecurity event in early November left customers unable to fill prescriptions for four days, while other in-store functions like self-checkout machines, gift card use and the redemption of loyalty points were offline for about a week.

Empire said in December the incident is expected to cost $25 million after insurance recoveries.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2023