Germany direct-to-consumer bike brand Canyon Bicycles has confirmed that it was hit by a cyber attack just before the start of the year. While the company was locked out of its IT systems at its Germany headquarters, its e-commerce website and U.S office’s IT system was not affected.
Roman Arnold, Canyon’s founder and CEO said “The attack shows massive criminal intent.” He also confirmed that the company’s business processes had been “temporarily massively affected.”
He continued, “We are making every effort to keep the impact on our customers and fans as low as possible and to get back to normal operations as quickly as possible.”
It is understood that the hackers’ intention was to gain access to sensitive data and demand a ransom. The company noted that its retail website and the content on it was safe and unaffected – as it was on a different server to those affected by the cyber attack.
Canyon’s US office, which has its own IT system, was not affected by the attack.
Based in Koblenz, Germany, a release from Canyon stated… ‘Shortly before the turn of the year, Canyon Bicycles GmbH became the target of a massive criminal cyber attack. Apparently, this was perpetrated by a professionally organized group that specialize in attacking companies. The perpetrators succeeded in gaining access to Canyon’s IT systems. Software and servers were encrypted and thus locked in places. The website www.canyon.com was not affected. Orders via the web shop could and continue to be placed as usual. Meanwhile, the attack has been identified and stopped according to the current state of knowledge.
‘Canyon has been closely working with the Koblenz criminal investigation department and the state criminal investigation department since the date of the attack. In addition, Canyon has informed the state commissioner for data protection in Rhineland-Palatinate. Criminal charges will be filed against the perpetrators.’
