Ransomware attack affects Blue Yonder customers, including Starbucks

Supply chain software provider Blue Yonder has been struck by a ransomware attack. A few of its clients have been impacted directly by the incident, including Starbucks and UK grocery store chains Morrisons and Sainsbury.

In a press release, Blue Yonder states that its employees experienced disruptions to its managed services hosted environment on November 21. Research showed that this was caused as a result of a ransomware incident.

“With respect to the Blue Yonder Azure public cloud environment, we are actively monitoring and currently do not see any suspicious activity,” the software company said.

External cybersecurity firms, including CrowdStrike, are working closely to recover from the incident. Defensive and forensic protocols have been implemented.

No additional information was shared in the following days.

Meanwhile, several high-profile clients of Blue Yonder have come forward and acknowledged they felt the impact of the ransomware attack at the Arizona-based supply chain software provider.

Spokespersons for Morrisons and Sainsbury, two of the biggest grocery chains in the United Kingdom, told CNN they had taken steps to deal with the ransomware attack at Blue Yonder.

“We have reverted to a backup process but the outage has caused the smooth flow of goods to our stores to be impacted,” a spokesperson for Morrisons said in a statement. Sainsbury confirmed it has put “contingency processes in place” to deal with the situation.

Another large Blue Yonder client that has been affected by the ransomware incident, is Starbucks. A spokesperson of the coffee chain confirmed that in the aftermath of the attack its computer systems have been compromised, which affected its ability to pay baristas and manage their schedules.

Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson told CNN that Starbucks’ store leadership has been informed on a manual workaround and promises that the company will make sure everyone gets paid.

Blue Yonder has thousands of prominent clients, including DHL, Renault, Bayer, Nestle, 3M, Tesco, Ace Hardware, Procter & Gamble, and 7-Eleven.