IBNS-CMEDIA: Following reportedly six days of closing all locations of London Drugs stores across Western Canada due to a “cybersecurity incident,” it is gradually reopening its stores, the retail and pharmacy chain said.
The retailer, headquartered in Richmond, a suburban city about 16 kilometres south of Vancouver, said that It is working with its nearly 80 stores in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba individually to get them up and running.
“We ask for patience as we work with each store to ensure it is operating fully to meet the needs of our customers, and therefore we will not be communicating which stores are opening and when… are continuing to work with our third-party cybersecurity experts to bring our systems online in a safe and secure manner,” London Drugs said in a Saturday statement.
Following the opening of stores emergency prescription and urgent care needs are being taken care of by the pharmacists at all stores, said London Drugs and added that Canada Post offices located within stores are also open.
The Insurance Services Call Centre is also open to assist clients.
“We are grateful for the patience and support of our customers and suppliers as we work to bring all services and systems at our stores back to full operation following this cybersecurity incident,” president and chief operating officer Clint Mahlman said in the statement.
Being the “victim of a cybersecurity incident”,on Apr 28, London Drugs Chain had shuttered its stores across Western Canada until further notice with measures to counter the attack once it was discovered.
“At this time, we have no reason to believe that customer or employee data has been impacted,” the company has said in a statement.
The retailers’ phone system was also down earlier in the week.
London Drugs is rebuilding its data infrastructure with the help of third-party experts to bring its operations safely back online, according to the statement.
There are billions of lines of data and code to review, the retailer said, adding its teams have been working around the clock and are making progress only turning on systems after being fully confident of their safety and security
In spite of the significant impact of the breach on operations and its rigorous restoration process, the company’s investigation so far revealed no evidence of customer databases having been compromised, including for pharmacy patients and its LDExtra members.
