A cyberattack has hit office supplier Staples, temporarily disrupting the company’s customer support channels and delivery systems.
Staples announced the incident on its website today. “Staples recently identified a cybersecurity risk [and] took proactive steps in an effort to mitigate the impact and protect customer data.”
The company’s attempts to fend off the cyberattack resulted in Staples locking down IT systems, including those devoted to processing orders and customer service. “We apologize for the inconvenience, and rest assured, all of our systems are in the process of being restored,” the message adds. “We expect to return to full functionality in short order.”
(Credit: Staples)Another message from the company says customers might experience "slight delays” in receiving their orders due to Staples recovering from the cyberattack. But the retailer still plans on fulfilling all orders.
Staples didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, making it unclear if any customer data was stolen. But on Reddit, employees at the office supplier report the attack was bad enough to shut down access to several internal IT systems, including the corporate VPN.
“Everything is still down. I work in store and we have no access to email, bizfit, pogs, ehelp desk,” one employee wrote.
“I work in the call center and everything is still down for us. This is crazy. I’ve never experienced anything happen like this while working with Staples as long as I have,” wrote another.
In the meantime, Staples says all of its retail stores remain open and are operating normally. The company runs about 990 brick-and-mortar locations across the US.
