London Drugs is warning about the persistence and scale of “international threat actors” following a cyberattack.
The attack led to the closure of 79 stores in Western Canada, including B.C., for nearly a week.
“We will obviously continue to do everything technically and humanly possible,” London Drugs president and chief operating officer Clint Mahlman said, speaking to the level of sophistication of the international threat actors.
The challenge with retail, uniquely, is that our customers want access and we want them to have access. (Customers) want to use electronic tools and as long as this continues, we’ll have an ongoing battle with these threat actors.”
According to Mahlman, the company had a strong cyber-security system in place prior to the attack drawing from global expertise.
London Drugs deals with thousands of cyberattacks every day, the president said. At this time it appears no customer information was stolen.
Mahlman promised that if evidence is found of comprised data, the company will notify its affected customers.
Exact details of the cyberattack will not be released by the company, as it is worried the information will be used in future attacks.
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The investigation is ongoing.
Mahlman issued a formal apology to its customers on Wednesday, as well.
“I want to begin by expressing my sincere apologies for the inconvenience and any concerns that may have arisen from the cybersecurity incident against London Drugs,” he said.
Mahlman said a lot of the third-party systems used by the retail chain are still being worked through to be brought online.
“While we are open, we beg for a little more forgiveness and patience as we connect to some of our other systems.”