Garmin has issued some frequently asked questions (FAQs) in response to the outage of its Garmin Connect service. Garmin’s service for uploading user devices has been inaccessible for a number of days.
Garmin’s first acknowledgement of the outage came on July 23rd – with the following statement…
We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin Connect, and as a result, the Garmin Connect website and mobile app are down at this time.
This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience.
The Garmin Fitness social media channels have not provided any further information, other than the FAQs, which were posted on July 25th. Comments on the Garmin Fitness Facebook page were largely supportive of the company, acknowledging the challenge it currently faces.
Media reports indicate that Garmin has been the victim of a ransomware attack, with hackers allegedly demanding US$10 million from the company.
The short list of FAQs was posted on the third day of the outage, which is currently ongoing. The FAQs clear up some questions; although other questions do remain, such as:
- Has Garmin actually been hacked? The company refers to an outage but hasn’t publicly acknowledged reports about a ransomware attack.
- When does the company expect normal service to resume?
- Garmin’s FAQ states that workout data collected on Garmin devices during the outage is stored on the device and will appear in Garmin Connect once the user syncs their device. However, has historic data stored in Garmin Connect been stored safely or is this lost?
- The FAQ states that ‘Garmin has no indication that this outage has affected your data, including activity, payment or other personal information.’… Has users’ personal data, including activity locations, health data, etc., been accessed by hackers in any way?
- Will new purchasers of Garmin products be able to use their devices and store workouts without being able to access Garmin Connect to set up their user profile, settings, etc?
Supportive comments for Garmin on social media note that the current outage is less of an issue, due to a current lack of events amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Garmin users also suggest that pilot data services are a greater priority to remedy.
