Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack • Hacker News Board

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#181

Post by asimilator » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 10:52 PM UTC

mdoms wrote: post #137

jacquesm wrote: post #59

The internet-of-things that aren't really your things strikes again. When will manufacturers learn that their hardware should function even if their services are down? The whole account/subscription tacked on for no apparent reason thing is highly irritating, and Garmin is actually better than most.

My watch is functioning just fine. I can see historic data, log a run, tell the time etc.

The mobile app is 100% nonfunctional. Also any changes you made on the mobile app (eg editing rep counts in a weight lifting activity) are not synced back to the watch.

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#182

Post by scruple » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 11:03 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #138

scruple wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been tinkering with the idea of writing a service agent that detects when my Garmin GPS watch is connected to my desktop (where / how I charge it) and automatically pulls down any new activities to store locally as a backup. Starting around 2012... I used to scrape my activities off of the Garmin Connect website, I eventually got tired of the manual nature of this process and also having to keep up with changes…

GoldenCheetah can do at least some of what you want. https://www.goldencheetah.org/

Thanks for that!

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#183

Post by ssorc » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 11:06 PM UTC

parliament32 wrote: post #119

exabrial wrote: post #6

Their products are designed to work offline. Despite the cloud being down I have full local functionality right now. (Though I can't see my history, surprised they don't cache that locally). Last year when I did a 9-day canoe trip with no cell phone reception, all of my Garmin gear worked flawlessly (wearables, navigation devices, and their offline map app). Can't say the same about my friends iWatches/fitbits or eve…

I can upload basic metrics from my Fenix 3 (steps, HR, etc) and see them in the app but I can't upload an activity I did earlier today (a run) to see the stats on it.

You can upload the activity via PC: the FIT files are directly accessible via USB mass storage in the "Activity" directory. This allows you to upload FIT files to cloud-based services such as Strava to see your running stats, or into a PC-based application to do the same locally.

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#184

Post by TwoBit » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 11:17 PM UTC

francisofascii wrote: post #154

sn_master wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source? Do you work there? Do you know whats the ransomware used or how much they're demanding?

Total speculation, my guess is WastedLocker. It has been hitting all types of companies in the past few months. Have a friend who's company was hit recently. They were somehow were able to encrypt the backups.

Looks like their backups were mishandled. Any listing of best practices for backups includes their being stored offline.

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#185

Post by TwoBit » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 11:24 PM UTC

coldcode wrote: post #176

some_random wrote: post #49

Talked to someone I know there who said it looked like ransomware targeting all windows boxes, including those connected via VPN.

Either the people in charge of security were dumb (dealt with some of those) or they were smart and the executives refused to listen or fund them (met those as well) or both (and have worked at places like that too). I wonder how many companies fall into these categories.

What would they have suggested that executives might not listen to?

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#186

Post by macintux » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 11:32 PM UTC

abkfenris wrote: post #142

toomuchtodo wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any recommendations for digital mapping solutions that “just work” without connectivity?

Gaia GPS is fantastic. You can mix and match layers, and specify what bounds you want to download for a trip. Right now I've got 3 GB stored locally, some of that for the usual locations that I wander out of connectivity, and some for a trip next week. Garmin (formerly Delorme) Earthmate despite their other issues is great for state or province wide vector maps. Not as great for fine navigation and tracking (as it's…

I love Gaia on my iPhone and iPad, but I’ve had real problems with map layers not displaying lately. MapBox Streets and Gaia Streets are both hosed and I can’t figure out why.

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#187

Post by francisofascii » Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 12:01 AM UTC

alexfoo wrote: post #174

aksss wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My vote is something's being held for ransom like DNS or account access rather than traditional storage encryption. It's pretty impressive if storage encryption crossed so many network boundaries and affected so many diverse resource types - phones, chat, email, website, distributed app platform. What other central resource besides DNS would have such a broad impact?

Or they're hugely Windows based (Exchange, SQL Server, AD Servers, etc) and the same exploit got into a huge number of diverse machines. Or shudder far reaching writeable network mounts.

Yes, exactly. My friend's company was Windows based with mapped drives to external servers.

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#188

Post by app4soft » Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 12:02 AM UTC

petee wrote: post #102

exabrial wrote: post #6

Their products are designed to work offline. Despite the cloud being down I have full local functionality right now. (Though I can't see my history, surprised they don't cache that locally). Last year when I did a 9-day canoe trip with no cell phone reception, all of my Garmin gear worked flawlessly (wearables, navigation devices, and their offline map app). Can't say the same about my friends iWatches/fitbits or eve…

Garmin Connect app won't even show you data sync'd from a watch unless its online and connected. Simple things like hours slept, or miles walked will not show. Right now it just has a "server maintenance" message, and won't show anything that uses a graph, or historical data...nothing is stored locally. On my recent hiking trip, the watch had no problem recording and sync'ing tracks, but the connect app refused to re…

Just never use apps that require cloud connection to store your data.

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#189

Post by biomcgary » Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 12:11 AM UTC

centimeter wrote: post #157

kylebarron wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about their Inreach products, which are designed for backcountry SOS emergency calls to search and rescue? That certainly needs a network.

For anyone considering an InReach: If you only need it for SOS (not for messaging), it’s a very bad investment. You can get a cospas/sarsat based PLB which has the same SOS functionality with no subscription fee. It’s funded by various governments.

About two weeks ago, my wife, young sons, and father-in-law saved the life of a hiker in Colorado using an InReach. The messaging helped dispatch decide to send helicopter. According to doctors, she had less than an hour to live by the time she arrived.

Also, having the messaging functionality meant that we knew they weren't injured.

Beacons don't allow you to provide details, but they are better than nothing. Out of 30 hikers that passed by, my family was the only one with satellite-based emergency reporting capability.

Re: Garmin services and production go down after ransomware attack

#190

Post by jdechko » Fri, Jul 24, 2020, 12:14 AM UTC

zuppy wrote: post #141

jdechko wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you run, but you don’t post it to strava, did you even run? /s

This is silly. I use the data to see where can I improve, not for bragging. I can not see it on the app while the service is down. Yeah, sure, I can manually downlod it (as I can also take a paper and a pen and write the data), but that’s not a fair expectation.

I know. I was being sarcastic. I’m the same way, and I’m pretty sure my strava is set to private. Mine was more of a comment on how everything has a social component nowadays.