Starbucks using pen and paper to pay workers after ransomware attack

Starbucks managers are using pen and paper to track employee schedules and payroll after a ransomware attack affected a third-party software supplier whose system is used to electronically log barista schedules.

Blue Yonder Group, a UK-based subsidiary of Panasonic which sells supply chain software to Starbucks and other retailers, said that its services were disrupted Thursday by a ransomware attack.

The company, whose products help with tasks such as fulfillment and delivery logistics, said that it is working “around the clock” to fix the issue.

Starbucks said the outage has impacted the company’s 11,000 stores in the North America, though service continues uninterrupted.

A spokesperson for the Seattle-based chain of coffeehouses told Reuters that the incident “is not impacting its customer service, and the company was working to ensure its employees were fully paid for their hours worked with limited disruption or discrepancy.”

Starbucks has told workers that Blue Yonder hasn’t given a timeline for when the issue may get resolved, according to Bloomberg News.

Baristas who are scheduled to receive their salaries on Friday will get compensation for shifts that were scheduled on the week of Nov. 18 — which may lead to them getting a wage that does not reflect the actual hours worked since it does not take into account sick days or extra shifts picked up.

“We are hopeful this outage will not extend to impact payroll processing for future weeks,” the company told workers.

“However, we are continuing to look for ways to improve pay accuracy and processing should the outage continue.”

Blue Yonder said in a statement on Monday that it notified customers about the incident and “will continue to communicate as appropriate.”

“Blue Yonder experienced disruptions to its managed services hosted environment, which was determined to be the result of a ransomware incident,” said Marina Renneke, a company spokesperson.

“Since learning of the incident, the Blue Yonder team has been working diligently together with external cybersecurity firms to make progress in their recovery process. We have implemented several defensive and forensic protocols.”