Dive Brief:
- Staples said a cyber incident last week disrupted its ability to process and deliver online orders via Staples.com. The attack also impacted communications and customer service, the company said in a statement posted on its website.
- After extensive testing, the company was able to get numerous systems back online by Wednesday and restored other systems by Thursday, a spokesperson said via email, adding that the company’s fulfillment supply chain is operating normally.
- Staples expects to get caught up on all November orders by Friday evening, the spokesperson added. Staples retail stores continue to operate normally.
Dive Insight:
The incident comes at one of the most important times in the retail cycle, as Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are widely considered critical indicators of retail success.
The Staples spokesperson cautioned that it is still too early to make any definitive conclusions about the impact on data, but said the company’s quick actions “helped avert more serious consequences.”
“If we discover that customer data was impacted, we will notify customers consistent with our legal and contractual obligations,” the spokesperson said via email.
The spokesperson emphasized that no encryption of data took place during the incident.
The retail industry has been very concerned about the potential impact of cyber disruptions on its supply-chain operations, as high inflation and the looming threat of recession have had major impacts on consumer confidence and debt accumulation over the past year.
The Framingham, Mass.-based company has about 1,000 retail locations nationwide and is one of the largest office supply retailers in the country.
