While you might not think a gym would be the kind of place cybercriminals would actively pursue, there’s an amazing amount of personal data to be find in those online files. Such was the case late last week when fitness group Virgin Active confirmed that it had been the victim of a “sophisticated” cyberattack. While that sounds rather bad (because it is) the company has yet to confirm what kind of attack it was subjected or what kind of information was exposed to the hackers. It all sounds rather similar to what happened to Garmin towards the end of last year, but Virgin Active isn’t paying any kind of ransom, it seems.
Virgin Active launches investigation
Virgin Active SA’s online services went down entirely on Friday as it attempted to recover from the attack. Authorities are looking into the matter but have yet to release any kind of information to the public. Never fear though, you’ll still be able to go to the gym and get dak for vac, you just won’t be able to make use of the Virgin Active website or the mobile app, which was also taken offline.
While this happened on Friday, at the time of writing on Monday, 3 May the website is still unreachable with no confirmed date of reopening just yet.
“While we take the necessary steps to protect data, we have been targeted by sophisticated cybercriminals. As a precautionary measure, we have taken all systems offline while we resolve this,” said Virgin Active in a statement. “There is currently no indication that any data has been removed from our systems, however we urge all stakeholders to remain vigilant of any suspicious activity online. We are working with law enforcement and have notified the Information Regulator as a precaution.”
Source: TimesLive
