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[Closed] Garmin down

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After a great ride today, I am outraged that I can't see how awesome I was.

Nip on Garmin sort it out


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 3:19 pm
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Here's the status page: https://connect.garmin.com/status/

Literally everything they do is down, and has been all day.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 3:27 pm
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According to the app it is down for maintenance but that has been since 07:30 (probably before then) so I suspect someone has properly broken something for it not to be back up by now!

Hope it sorts itself soon...I've got some scales to register...I know I'm fat but I want to know the breakdown of how fat!!!


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 3:36 pm
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OMG....


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 3:38 pm
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Hopefully sort out the sleep tracker and the issue to why the steps on my phone (Apple health) don’t match with my watch


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 3:40 pm
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Put your phone on your wrist next to your watch - the movement of your wrist will count on both and your steps should get a closer match.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 3:42 pm
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Load it up to Srava to see how awsum you are 🙂


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 3:45 pm
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After a great ride today, I am outraged that I can’t see how awesome I was.

Nip on Garmin sort it out

What ride? If it ain't on strava...

C'mon garmin, I need to see my training status!!


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 3:52 pm
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The longer this went on, the less likely it was to be a typical failure and it is starting to look like this is indeed the case.

A Taiwanese IT website is saying that it is a ransomware attack and that they've shut production down (in Taiwan) as a result.

iThome received news from readers that Garmin (Taiwan International Avionics), a well-known GPS and wearable device manufacturer in Taiwan, was suspected of being hacked. The IT department sent a notice to various departments in Taiwan stating that internal IT servers and databases were attacked and production lines were also suspended. Two days. It is speculated that Garmin may be attacked by ransomware.

Bad day to be in IT at Garmin, I would say... :-/


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 3:55 pm
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Put your phone on your wrist next to your watch – the movement of your wrist will count on both and your steps should get a closer match.

Heh! My phone is actually recording more steps and is accurate, the watch has been thousands out


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 4:01 pm
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If it is ransomware
I hope all their different countries etc are fire walled from each other and it’s not got into their whole system. Otherwise they’ve got big problems - they might not even get full access if they pay the ransom.

Travelex got hit earlier this year and I’ve seen a number of large ish companies lose access to their entire network as a result. You either pay up and hope for the best or accept you’ve lost everything and completely rebuild your systems.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 4:03 pm
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I've ended up downloading from watch onto laptop, then strava, I am indeed oarsum


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 4:04 pm
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I hope all their different countries etc are fire walled from each other and it’s not got into their whole system. Otherwise they’ve got big problems – they might not even get full access if they pay the ransom.

Pretty sure GC is one, big platform and not individual regional deployments. This is based on when it's gone down in the past before, it's always been global. The worry is whether whoever compromised them also downloaded a copy of the data because there a lot of *seriously* personal data held in there...


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 4:05 pm
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Their Facebook message mentions their call centres are down too - no email / phones etc which doesn’t bode well


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 4:40 pm
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Their Facebook message mentions their call centres are down too – no email / phones etc which doesn’t bode well

No, indeed. I suspect that most people working in IT would have read that and started thinking "ransomware" immediately.

Think about how long Travelex were down - they were offline for way more than a month and they were even reported to have paid $2.3m to recover their systems too...


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 4:47 pm
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Manual uploads to Strava it is then


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 4:52 pm
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If it is ransomware
I hope all their different countries etc are fire walled from each other and it’s not got into their whole system. Otherwise they’ve got big problems – they might not even get full access if they pay the ransom.

restore from backups is the answer - they obviously take backups dont they, nobody would be silly enough to think that just because its on the cloud they dont need to take backups.......


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 4:57 pm
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Assuming their backups haven’t also been encrypted if this is a ransomware attack....


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:04 pm
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I've just bought a set of the Garmin Smart Scales (which I had to wait for about 6 weeks to arrive.)

Been using them for a week. Really cool, uploads all of your stats to Garmin Connect.

Except now they don't. Ar$e.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:05 pm
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Assuming their backups haven’t also been encrypted if this is a ransomware attack….

...and their SCM / software repository. If they are rebuilding from scratch, just getting the platform back up (even without customer data) might be a challenge in itself if they don't have access to their own software!

It'll be a good test of whatever business continuity planning they have in place and how they handle the coming hours and days will be a very public assessment of these processes. Travelex failed badly, maybe Garmin will do better...


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:11 pm
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Assuming their backups haven’t also been encrypted if this is a ransomware attack….

Ah - the benefits of offline backups.

I'm going to guess that they've had a ransomware attack that has encrypted a few computers/servers (probably end user laptops/desktops) , but they're not confident that the rest of their estate is well protected enough to withstand attempted attack from inside their network, so they've taken the lot offline while they work out how to protect the stuff that hasnt yet been affected.

We'll probably never know the full picture though...


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:13 pm
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Hopefully we will though as there is a lot of personal data stored with them, so it would be good for them to be open with their users.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:20 pm
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Ah – the benefits of offline backups.

This can be very, very challenging on systems with very high ingest rates like telematics platforms (which, oddly, systems like Garmin Connect and Strava are most closely aligned with). Certainly the days of tape backups are long gone - I'd bet good money that you couldn't write out to tape libraries fast enough to keep up with the ingest of new data on GC.

Plenty of other options for "disconnected" backups, all of them offering a lower level of protection than "tapes in a safe", but hopefully they've got something in place. Not sure how cloud-native they are, so it may even be that they have frozen archives of data, but if (for example) an AWS root console has been compromised, then they are probably stuffed whatever they have done :-/


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:20 pm
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Ah bugger. My Tacx trainer is bricked and waiting to hear about a warranty replacement.

Just spent the last 4 weeks waiting for a part and on first use since something else let go.

Good job there is still real life out there with like woods and trails and roads and stuff. If that all breaks I am totally screwed.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:29 pm
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Manual uploads to Strava it is then

Which is what I do as standard, GC is a truly awful piece of software. I bypass all of that and just put it straight onto Strava.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:39 pm
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In what way is GC awful? I've had Garmin watches in various forms for 4 years, this is the first time I can recall not being able to load my ride onto Strava via GC.

It's normally seemless, and is on Strava by the time I've put my bike away to be fair.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:43 pm
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GC is a truly awful piece of software.

True the Garmin site is pants, but "normally" I stop and save ride on watch by the time I've opened the car it's synced with Strava and its uploaded. Pretty seamless


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:45 pm
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Manual uploads to Strava it is then

How'd you do that then? Asking for a friend.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 5:53 pm
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Noticed that the Garmin website is down too.....

I don’t mind Garmin Connect -‘it normally works fine. Although when it does an overnight update it seems to forget both my garmin devices (edge 530 / forerunner 645) and the only way to reconnect is to forget both Garmins on the phone and delete them from Connect and start from scratch. Happened 2 or 3 times already this year and it’s very annoying. Didn’t have anything like that with my Lezyne in several years.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 6:02 pm
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Plug unit into computer - it appears as a drive. From Strava website click on the plus sign to the right of you avatar/photo and select "manual upload". Navigate to your unit and find the "activities" folder, select your activity and click OK.

I have to do this with my Oregon as it doesn't connect via bluetooth. I sometimes have to do it with my 520, just depends if it and my phone are talking to one another. No big deal as I need to charge the unit anyway.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 6:02 pm
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When it’s back up, just turn on your device and sync it then then the ride will upload.

That’s what ill be doing with today’s ride.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 6:10 pm
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I don't tend to use the software on my pc, mainly the app (Android) - which seems to work well.

Watch has WiFi so installs updates without a 3rd app/device and after a ride, it seems to skelp through the sync process quickly.

Segment creation on Garmin is mince compared to Strava but otherwise, Connect has been fine for me.

The 520 via the Apple version seems to take an age to sync...it connects to phone near instantly but still takes about 2 minutes after connection before it will sync the ride...that is annoyingly slow.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 7:04 pm
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When it’s back up, just turn on your device and sync it then then the ride will upload.

That’s what ill be doing with today’s ride.

There's a good chance that may be days (or even weeks) away if the rumours circulating are true, but otherwise you're quite correct - it should sort itself out eventually.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 7:08 pm
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Just plugged my 530 into my Mac mini and the Strava upload was easy and quick. Just not as quick as it just working automatically through Bluetooth to my phone.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 7:12 pm
 MSP
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Whats the link between tacx and garmin, tacx seem to think the problem is theirs. Are they part of the same group?

https://twitter.com/tacx

edit: Well a quick google says yes. https://tacx.com/garmin-acquires-tacx/

Maybe not ransomware then, could just be a ****ed up attempt to link the two companies IT infrastructures.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 7:44 pm
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Typical. My new Garmin instinct watch has arrived this afternoon and I can't finish setting it up. Gutted.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 7:53 pm
 momo
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Doubly annoying for me, we have our life insurance with Vitality, MrsMomo tracks her activity on a Garmin watch and I record my rides on an edge 1030, vitality app syncs with GC, so no points (or rewards!) for us until this is resolved (well, I can record on my Apple Watch so not quite so much of an issue, but still...)

As for uploading to strava, the USB ports on my MacBook have committed Harry kari, provide power but don’t do the data thing anymore, and my work laptop is locked down so can’t even use that.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 8:15 pm
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Did my run today even happen?

I’m no longer sure.

In other news, since my run I have had a smoothie, some squash, then wine. And water. Now, more wine. I now consider myself rehydrated.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 8:58 pm
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As for uploading to strava, the USB ports on my MacBook have committed Harry kari, provide power but don’t do the data thing anymore

Tried this?

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/reset-usb-ports-mac-laptops-51619.html

Or this for usb c

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.imore.com/how-troubleshoot-dead-usb-c-ports-your-macbook%3famp


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 9:19 pm
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Well that's my weekend ruined, I was going to go riding but without the kudos of other bike riders what's the point? I could manually upload but that's extra effort.

Ransomware attack is story on ZDNET and they might be spending a few days rebuilding systems. One of my favorite car forums was destroyed by ransomware, loads of good info lost.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 9:27 pm
 Bez
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I’ve always wanted sites like Garmin Connect etc to offer the option to upload rides but to only store metadata and summary information (time, date, distance, average speed etc), to give a log of rides without the actual geo data. This is absolutely one of the reasons why.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 9:42 pm
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I see that some employees are supposedly attributing it to "WastedLocker" - a recent encryption attack tool. One positive of this is that the reports of the team behind this indicates that they are not interested in data theft (often the threat of publishing private data is more effective than threat of losing it), only in financial extortion. This suggests (hopefully!) that we won't all see years of our rides appearing on bittorrent any time soon, and that it's very much down to Garmin to either pay up, restore or fess up that they've lost a lost of customer data!

I'm guessing that we'll see it come back up sans-data first to allow new stuff to be uploaded, and then recovery of data history will follow later.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 9:50 pm
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If they have lost everything and don’t get given it back it could be weeks / months before everything is back rather than day tbh. We’ve had an IT security company come in to present on a number of occasions to the large corporates we look after and it just sounds horrendous the damage that can be done. There was a solicitors business that basically only operated on personal phones using WhatsApp for weeks. Every company device was locked / encrypted and unusable. I don’t think from memory they paid the ransom and spent months having their system rebuilt in a secure way.

Let’s hope Garmin had a good IT budget and used it sensibly....


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 10:06 pm
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Agreed...given the volumes of data they'll be crunching 24/7, there is every hope that their systems were managed and supported properly.


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 10:47 pm
 Bez
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Let’s hope Garmin had a good IT budget and used it sensibly…

Well, if my experience of their device firmware over the past 20 years is anything to go by…


 
Posted : 23/07/2020 10:57 pm
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