Major Garmin Connect Outage

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alasta

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#272944 26-Jul-2020 18:31

Has anyone else been affected by the systems outage that Garmin has been experiencing for the last three days? It sounds like it has arisen from a major security incident and it's got me wondering how long it will take to clean up the mess, and whether there is more that they should have done to avoid such an incident.

I know it's first world problems, but three days is a long time for Garmin's wearables user base to be stuck with effectively crippled devices, and who knows how much longer it might go on for.

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#2529135 26-Jul-2020 19:03

Yeah it’s annoying. Did you even run if you can’t upload it to garmin? And also their app is so stupid that it crashes because it can’t hit the server and won’t even just back up your activities from your watch.

Not even wanting it on garmin but on Strava.

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#2529138 26-Jul-2020 19:11

Yep, they got hella hacked by Evil Corp via Wasted Locker. (Ransomwared and all the data probably exfiled and soon to be sold off, so consider that all your Garmin Devices data is now in the hands of the Bad Guys)

gajan

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#2529139 26-Jul-2020 19:12

Haven’t tried it myself, but if your desperate to update strava :
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/07/how-to-upload-your-garmin-workout-during-the-outage.html/amp

Without Garmin Connect, the watch is still able to do the post-workout progression stuff (and tell you that your 18k run was a recovery run...).

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maoriboy

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#2529160 26-Jul-2020 19:43

Yep everyone worldwide is affected. Really simple to upload manually to Strava as the link @gajan shared shows. I've done it myself several times without any problems.

Sounds like a 10 million dollar ransom is being demanded and I expect Garmin will take their time getting their systems back online. It's a major clusterf#$k whichever way you look at it.

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#2529162 26-Jul-2020 19:49

Colleague in the office is affected.

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mrdrifter

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#2529163 26-Jul-2020 19:53

Personally I think it points to bigger issues with their fundamental IT architecture if the ransomware was able to impact so many of their systems - Corporate, Consumer, Maritime, Aviation, Call Center, Manufacturing. I would have expected corporate systems to be segregated from the customer facing systems, especially for their maritime and aviation systems that lives can depend on.

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alasta

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#2529171 26-Jul-2020 20:19

kyhwana2:

Yep, they got hella hacked by Evil Corp via Wasted Locker. (Ransomwared and all the data probably exfiled and soon to be sold off, so consider that all your Garmin Devices data is now in the hands of the Bad Guys)

Their latest public statement suggests that they have 'no reason to believe' that data has been leaked to the hackers, but that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

If they are correct in their allusion that user data is secure then it will be a major embarrassment but it will eventually be forgotten.

If, on the other hand, user data has been leaked then the implications will be huge. There will be very expensive lawsuits and widespread consumer backlash that will have a profound impact on the company. Would they even survive it?

alasta

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#2529172 26-Jul-2020 20:21

mrdrifter:

Personally I think it points to bigger issues with their fundamental IT architecture if the ransomware was able to impact so many of their systems - Corporate, Consumer, Maritime, Aviation, Call Center, Manufacturing. I would have expected corporate systems to be segregated from the customer facing systems, especially for their maritime and aviation systems that lives can depend on.

This is a very good point. I'm not an IT person so it's easy for me to sit here from a position of ignorance and suggest that their systems should have been better secured, but somehow I can't imagine something like this happening to a company like Apple.

There are going to be some serious questions asked over the coming days and weeks.

tukapa1

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#2529228 27-Jul-2020 06:56

gajan: Haven’t tried it myself, but if your desperate to update strava :
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/07/how-to-upload-your-garmin-workout-during-the-outage.html/amp

Without Garmin Connect, the watch is still able to do the post-workout progression stuff (and tell you that your 18k run was a recovery run...).

Thanks for the link - half marathon yesterday and I have to upload the run data to the organisers page to confirm so very timely - cheers!

sidefx

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#2529231 27-Jul-2020 07:54

I heard there are some ultra-marathon events currently on where they mandate garmins as the way you prove you've run the correct course.

I have a Garmin and am(was...?) a huge fan. But the whole thing is pretty disappointing TBH. I suspect (hope!!) they will have a massive overhaul of their IT, security and backup practices so I would probably buy a Garmin again in the future, provided they manage to fix this whole mess sometime soon.

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Ge0rge

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#2529232 27-Jul-2020 07:58

mrdrifter:
Personally I think it points to bigger issues with their fundamental IT architecture if the ransomware was able to impact so many of their systems - Corporate, Consumer, Maritime, Aviation, Call Center, Manufacturing. I would have expected corporate systems to be segregated from the customer facing systems, especially for their maritime and aviation systems that lives can depend on.

Garmin still seem to have enough control over the webservers to be able to put an outage message up, and the whatever server the Garmin Connect App talks to has been updated so the app shows a message explaining that they have an outage - I was thinking from that alone that they must have some sort or segregation and control over some of their servers?

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#2529233 27-Jul-2020 08:00

sidefx:

I heard there are some ultra-marathon events currently on where they mandate garmins as the way you prove you've run the correct course.

I have a Garmin and am(was...?) a huge fan. But the whole thing is pretty disappointing TBH. I suspect (hope!!) they will have a massive overhaul of their IT, security and backup practices so I would probably buy a Garmin again in the future, provided they manage to fix this whole mess sometime soon.

Looking at that dc rainmaker article, there are some type of smart device that have no offline method. One thing I don't like it that the 9/10 the garmin connect software wont even load on my phone, it just crashes. It should be able to work in an offline mode, and a, show the status of the garmin services....and b, be able to at least back up my watch to the phone (so a fit file is on watch and phone).

Next step, I'd prefer that the watch was smart enough to be able to send a fit file places....it's has it's own wifi connection, and/or bluetooth it should be able to send at least via email out either of those connections.

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#2529242 27-Jul-2020 08:25

Now if only Chorus would add Spotify to the Apex Pro I would jump ship in a heartbeat.

alasta

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#2529247 27-Jul-2020 08:44

sidefx:

I have a Garmin and am(was...?) a huge fan. But the whole thing is pretty disappointing TBH. I suspect (hope!!) they will have a massive overhaul of their IT, security and backup practices so I would probably buy a Garmin again in the future, provided they manage to fix this whole mess sometime soon.

I feel the same. I switched from an Apple Watch because I believed that the Garmin product was more robust and utilitarian. I am watching this situation with great interest because it will inform whether I stick with Garmin long term, or whether I seriously consider the next generation Apple watch.

maoriboy

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#2529267 27-Jul-2020 09:24

alasta:

I feel the same. I switched from an Apple Watch because I believed that the Garmin product was more robust and utilitarian. I am watching this situation with great interest because it will inform whether I stick with Garmin long term, or whether I seriously consider the next generation Apple watch.

For me they are 2 different devices that fill 2 different (but slightly overlapping) areas. For me the Garmin will always win for anything fitness related and the metrics that come out of it when combined with a HR monitor or running dynamics pod cannot be beaten. I guess it depends on your usage situation.

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