Grocery stores and pharmacies belonging to Canadian food retail giant Sobeys have been experiencing IT systems issues since last weekend.
Sobeys is one of two national grocery retailers in Canada, with 134,000 employees servicing a network of 1,500 stores in all ten provinces under multiple retail banners, including Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Foodland, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, and Lawtons Drugs.
In a separate statement published on Sobeys’ official website with “Important information” regarding the retailer’s store services, Sobeys added that all stores remained open and were “Not experiencing significant disruptions.”
Based on ransom notes and negotiation chats BleepingComputer has seen, the attackers deployed Black Basta ransomware payloads to encrypt systems on Sobeys’ network.
Photographs shared by Sobeys employees online also show in-store computers displaying a Black Basta ransom note.
Black Basta ransomware was first spotted in attacks in mid-April 2022, with the operation quickly ramping up its attacks against companies worldwide in the coming months.
