Henry Schein Inc., a major distributor of medical and dental supplies, continues to grapple with a cyber-attack that compromised its core systems, causing disruptions in its ecommerce platforms.
The company faced a significant data breach on October 14, impacting its distribution and ecommerce systems. Even after nearly a month, during a recent earnings call on November 12, CEO Stanley Bergman indicated that they were still in the process of restoring their systems.
However, on November 22, Henry Schein announced that its ecommerce systems faced ongoing issues linked to the data breach, rendering certain applications, including the ecommerce platform, unavailable. The company resorted to alternative methods for order processing and shipment while working on securely restoring these applications.
According to Henry Schein’s website update, the cause was identified, with the threat actor from the previous cyber incident claiming responsibility for the recent problems. The disruption persisted through the Thanksgiving holiday, with ecommerce systems only being fully restored recently in the United States. Efforts are underway to restore platforms in Canada and Europe shortly.
Although specific details regarding the cyber-attack and the attackers are limited, reports from Security Week suggest that a ransomware group named Alphv and BlackCat is claiming responsibility. This assertion follows Henry Schein’s alleged refusal to meet a ransom demand.
The original data breach significantly impeded Henry Schein’s sales processing, especially given that around 75% of their sales are conducted through digital commerce channels, a figure highlighted by CFO Ron South during discussions with analysts.
Consequently, the breach caused delays in the filing of Henry Schein’s full third-quarter earnings report, and the company anticipates filing an insurance claim in 2024 pertaining to the data breach incident.
