[German]It seems that Medion, a German Lenovo subsidary, who offers electronic devices – for discounter like Aldi -has becom victim of a cyber attack. There are customers complaining about "delivery problems" with orders. And I have found information from Medion, that they are victim of a cyber incident, that affects their IT systems and the Medion shop.
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A press inquiry has currently been sent by me to the agency in charge – but it will go round several corners if I get a reply at all.
A first reader tip
A reader sent me a reference (to a post on Facebook) (thanks for that), which says that Medion is informing customers that there has recently been an "IT disruption". Both the internal systems and store systems are affected, although it says that all of this is only "partially affected".
In the customer information, the company assures customers that the Medion team is working at full speed with external specialists to "resolve the situation over the next few days", according to the post (which did not originate from Medion, however). They are in the process of cleaning up the systems and clarifying the cause.
If the above statements are true, the whole thing doesn't really sound good. I had interpreted the information from these statements to mean "there has been a cyber incident", which IT is now working through with external specialists.
It also states that the company can only be reached by phone to a limited extent "due to the current situation". Unfortunately, written inquiries cannot be processed at present.
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Research: Medion has admitted the incident
It was after midnight, when I got the above notification and I was not able to clarify anything. My check showed, that I can access the Medion store pages. I then searched further – the reader information available to me was quite clear and I did some more research on the Medion store pages and on Facebook in the Medion group.
On the German Medion Facebook page, I came across comments from customers complaining that their ordered goods have not been delivered for days. Last week Thursday (Nov. 28, 2024) someone asked: "What's going on with your website? Wanted to order all day, first maintenance until late afternoon and now – no matter which page you go to – always the same page for hairdryers…" In the same group, a customer then posted a screenshot (probably Friday, 29.11.2024), which I'll post below. It's in German and confirm a cyber incident.
It states very clearly that there has been an IT incident "due to a known external attacker". The poster writes that he found this on Medion's "Service" page. The service page states "We will be back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience. We are currently carrying out maintenance work on the website and will be back online shortly!" On the delivery and shipping page, however, Medion now writes ('I've translated the German text).
Dear customers,
MEDION recently experienced an IT malfunction. Our internal systems as well as our store activities are partially affected. We would like to assure you that our team is working at full speed together with external specialists to resolve the situation within the next few days, clean up the systems and clarify the causes.
That doesn't sound really good – I find it confusing that apparently different information is being presented on different Medion store pages.
Another information
Following my post here, an Aldi Talk customer contacted me on Facebook and wrote that the Aldi Talk mobile service operated by Medion was having massive problems. In his environment, this is often used for children. Between Friday 22.11. and Wednesday 27.11.2024 it was not possible to top up credit, no options could be booked, etc. The person concerned wrote that his partner uses Aldi Talk and that he had called the hotline several times to ask about it. It appears that the attack took place 1.5 weeks ago.
Who is Medion?
Essen-based Medion AG (MEDION) sells electronic products that it designs and assembles. The majority owner has been the Chinese Lenovo Group since July 2011.
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