STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU) – Kwik Trip customers around the state are continuing to express concerns over the company’s recent outage, which is preventing them from redeeming money-saving rewards.
Kwik Trip staff have told Bleeping Computer and reported online that various IT systems have been down over the weekend, with corporate sources unwilling to provide a clear reason for the outages.
Some of Kwik Trip’s employees have claimed that they are unable to receive new orders, take payments through the Kwik Reward system, or use the company’s support systems. However, they did state that they’ve been told their payroll Friday isn’t expected to be affected.
This network problem has also damaged Kwik Trip corporate offices’ email and phone systems, according to Bleeping Computer.
University of Stevens Point Computing and New Media Technologies Expert Chad Johnson says consumers can help protect themselves from these types of attacks by staying on top of their cyber security habits, saying, “Staying on top of their cyber hygiene don’t reuse passwords and just trying to be safe themselves that way if there is a breach it can limit the amount of damage it can do to a single individual.”
With an attack occurring every 39 seconds, there are over 800,000 cyberattacks in the U.S. every year, and according to the Ponemon Institute, 77% of businesses are woefully unprepared when it comes to preventing an attack or a data breach, with most businesses taking an average of 49 days to discover a ransomware attack. In 2019 alone, United States businesses reported 1,473 data breaches affecting 164.68 million compromised records.
In the FBI’s 2021 IC3 Report, phishing scams were responsible for around 22% of all data breaches, making it one of the most common cybercrimes. Additionally, it was reported that phishing attacks affected almost 83% of businesses in 2021. According to Verizon’s 2022 study, phishing was a factor in 36% of all data breaches.
Kwik Trip’s public relations and tour specialist told WISN 12 News last Friday that “we have been working diligently to restore our systems as quickly and safely as possible. We have made significant progress over the past few days and anticipate that services will be incrementally restored over the coming days.”
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