The recent ransomware attack one of the company’s vendors in software leaves the Starbucks employees unable to access their employee platform, hence facing scheduling challenges. The outage, starting over the weekend, will prevent the baristas from viewing or managing work schedules. There is a possibility that this could complicate the planning and tracking of employee hours, too.

The coffee giant confirmed that it is working actively with the affected third party to rectify the issue but did not give out the name of that third-party provider. Meanwhile, leaders and baristas at Starbucks stores are taking the task by hand in scheduling, making sure that all hours worked by the employees are paid even though the system is unavailable.

Disruption might have also caused internal operational challenges but did not affect customers and the company’s ability to serve its customer base with beverages and food in cafes. As stated by Starbucks, stores remain open and customer service is uninterrupted.

In fact, the growing nature of ransomware attacks has been become a tremendous worry as they have gained prominence within recent years. As recently reported from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the number of ransomware attacks risen to over 2,300 by mid-2024, making it one of the worst years on record.

Starbucks has not disclosed whether the attack was specifically targeted at the company or a way of broader cyberattack campaign. However, it is working to ensure that its operations are not severely disrupted as it further seeks the necessary technical support to resolve the issue in question. The main focus is on ensuring that all employees are paid correctly for hours worked during the outage.

Starbucks

With businesses trending toward procuring most of the respective third-party vendors’ offer for their software and IT services, this case is an evident example of the risks that cyber threats pose to global operations, especially when sensitive data and systems are involved. Starbucks indicated that it wasn’t sure about when the system will be fully restored but is monitoring the situation closely.