Garmin reportedly paid millions of dollars in ransom for a cyberattack

The number of cyberattacks targeting companies has significantly increased over the last few months. — Matej Moderc/Istock.com/AFP Relaxnews

Garmin's database suffered a ransomware attack – a common form of cyberattack – on July 23, leading to many of the fitness tech company's services going offline. The only way to recuperate the data was to obtain the decryption key, held by the hackers and the subject of costly negotiations. And according to documents obtained by Bleeping Computer, the company acquiesced to the payment.

The ransomware at the origin of the attack took offline all the brand's services – the Connect and flyGarmin platforms on the web as well as via the application, the call centres and the Garmin Pilot app were also offline. The brand is believed to have yielded to the demands and discreetly paid the ransom demanded by the hackers, via a company specialising in this type of situation.