Henry Schein Expects to Restore Ecommerce Platform Soon

Henry Schein told customers that its ecommerce platform should be restored this week, following an ongoing cybersecurity incident.

Henry Schein updated customers, stating that the company expects it’s ecommerce platform to be restored this week following disruptions in service related to an October 15 cyberattack.

In a statement dated November 26 Henry Schein stated, “We expect our U.S. ecommerce platform and certain other applications to be restored in the next few days, and possibly as early as Monday. Our ecommerce platform and other applications in Canada and Europe are expected to follow shortly thereafter.”

In mid-October, the company alerted customers to an ongoing cyberattack that it said was focused on its manufacturing and distribution business. At the time the company said that it was taking down certain services to try to contain the cyberattack while it worked with a third party to investigate the matter.

A few weeks later the hacker group BlackCat/ALPHV took credit for the cyberattack, threatening to release sensitive data publicly to pressure Henry Schein to engage with ransom negotiations. Typically, hacking groups exploit a vulnerability to access a company’s sensitive data and ransom it by threatening to publish it. For large companies, a ransom can be upwards of several million dollars.

Then in its Q3 financial report, the company addressed the cybersecurity incident and said that it had made progress in returning its systems to functionality.