Ace says systems are restored
As the investigation into Ace Hardware Corp.’s recent cybersecurity incident continues, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based co-op told vendors its systems and Retail Support Centers have been restored and Ace Hardware is fully operational.
The note to vendors, from Brian Wiborg, senior vice president of merchandising for Ace, included this recap: “It has been a very challenging week for everyone, but all systems are go and we are ready to get back to serving our retailers with the excellence they have come to expect.”
The co-op also told vendors to be prepared for large replenishment orders this week (week of Nov. 6).
The co-op's weekend communication included the following update:
Ace Hardware Corporation recently discovered a cybersecurity event that impacted some of our internal systems. We are in the early days of an ongoing investigation into the event. However, as part of our commitment to transparency, we want to provide our merchandising vendors an update to address any concerns.
On October 29, Ace became aware of the issue and immediately launched an investigation with the support of leading third-party cybersecurity experts to determine the scope and nature of the event. Our Ace team has worked alongside these experts around the clock over the past week to support the investigation and remediation efforts. Pursuant to our cyber response and business continuity plans, we isolated our systems and continue to collaborate with experts and law enforcement to help contain the situation. While we methodically bring each system back online, our local Ace stores have remained open to support our customers, as their local systems were not impacted by the event.
At this time, all of our core systems are operational, and we are able to process the entire order-to- cash transaction cycle. In addition, we have no evidence that any third-party systems that exchange information between you and Ace, such as order processing, and electronic data interchange, were impacted. For example, any payment details involving our merchandising vendors are stored outside of our environment with third party service providers. There is also no indication that exchanging data with Ace will have any impact on your systems. Ace systems interface with third party merchandise systems via a secured transport layer that operates outside of the Ace environment that was impacted by this event.
Consistent with our commitment to security, we continue to work diligently with our experts to closely monitor our environment and ensure it is safe. We are committed to communicating with our vendors and will continue to provide updates as we have additional information to share.
