LAKELAND – Last week, a “cybersecurity incident” hit the central supplier for co-ops in western Canada – the Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL). FCL confirmed the incident on June 27 through social media.
The incident also affected co-ops in the Lakeland region including Cornerstone Co-op and Lakeland Co-op. Both Co-ops redirected Lakeland Today to their social media channels and FCL for inquiries.
According to a June 27 FCL announcement, the cybersecurity incident impacted “some internal and customer facing systems at local retail Co-ops and cardlock fuel locations,” impacting inventory of some grocery items.
As a precaution, they shut down some of their systems. FCL also said they brought in third party experts to help with the investigation.
On July 3, FCL announced their main priority was to get all its cardlock locations back online. "We want to reinforce that fuel supply to Co-op retail gas bars has been relatively unaffected and customers can fill up at all Co-op retail locations,” according to the announcement.
On July 4 at around noon, FCL announced all 398 Co-op cardlock locations in Western Canada are back online.
“Our team has been working around the clock to recover our cardlock network and we want to thank Co-op cardlock customers for their patience and understanding throughout this process,” said FCL in the announcement.
Co-op websites in the Lakeland region are still down as of July 4.
In the Lakeland, Cornerstone Co-op board chair Clifford Martin said while he and the board are not aware of the cause of the cybersecurity incident, at the local level, “There was some supply issues.”
He said the co-op has done its best to access products from other sources. “It’s just very unfortunate that it happened,” said Martin.
Central Alberta
Meanwhile, in central Alberta, Westview Co-op was among those that were affected.
Harvey Walsh is Westview Co-op's board president. He told The Albertan that FCL supplies Westview with around 80 to 90 per cent of its products.
Walsh said FCL also provides a lot of the Co-op’s information technology (IT).
“It's being investigated,” Walsh said. “We don't have the full information yet. It's undergoing a third-party investigation to see what exactly transpired.”
Data Breach
Data breach is one of the concerns following the incident.
FCL said on June 29 that they have no evidence at this time that consumer data was compromised. “If the investigation determines that consumer data was compromised, we will take appropriate action.”
Lakeland Today reached out to FCL for updates including if the investigation has determined if consumer data was compromised. They were unable to respond prior to the press deadline.
