Virgin Active SA, owned by Richard Branson, has become a victim of a cyberattack that caused the company to suspend its website, app, and online activities for its members.
The sports and active lifestyle company confirmed in a statement that they were made aware of the attack on Thursday saying they had been attacked by “sophisticated cyber criminals.”
As a safety measure, the company suspended all online activities including its app and website. The gyms, however, are open, and club members have been invited to visit them, and classes now operate on a first-come first-served basis.
“While we take the necessary steps to protect data, we have been targeted by sophisticated cybercriminals. As a precautionary measure, we have taken all systems offline while we resolve this,” Virgin Active said in a statement.
An investigation has started into the extent of the attack to determine if any information was compromised.
“Our security teams immediately started working with cyber security experts to carefully contain, manage and investigate the cyber-event. Virgin Active says they also notified the Information Regulator and law enforcement regarding the incident. The company promised they were doing everything possible to resolve the situation in the best way possible:
“The security of our systems and data is a top priority for us and we are doing everything we can to rectify the situation.”
Virgin Active said there was no indication of any data theft from its systems.
A data analyst Bryan Turner from World Wide Worx, the company investigating the breach, said that while they did not know who the hackers were yet, nor their goals, they hoped an investigation would reveal that.
“Once we have more details from Virgin Active’s internal investigation team, we will be able to contextualise it with cybersecurity trends,” he said.
In a Tweet, Virgin Active said they organized a temporary hotline to address any questions concerned customers may have.
