Wholesale giant METRO hit by IT outage after cyberattack

International wholesale giant METRO is experiencing infrastructure outages and store payment issues following a recent cyberattack.

The company's IT team is currently investigating the incident with the help of external experts to discover the cause of this ongoing outage.

IT outages have been affecting stores in Austria, Germany, and France since at least October 17, according to a report from Günter Born.

"METRO/MAKRO is currently experiencing a partial IT infrastructure outage of several technical services," the wholesaler revealed in a note on its website. "METRO's IT team has immediately started a thorough investigation together with external experts to identify the cause of the interruption of services."

Even though its stores are still operating, METRO says that it was forced to set up offline payment systems and that online orders are delayed.

"While METRO stores are operating, and services are regularly available disruptions and delays may occur," the company said. "Online orders through the web app and online store are being processed but delays need to be expected, as well."

The company has notified the authorities regarding this security incident and will cooperate with any investigations linked to the attack.

METRO is an international wholesale company for customers in the HoReCa (hotel, restaurants, and catering) industry, operating in over 30 countries and employing more than 95,000 people worldwide.

It operates 661 wholesale stores (as of September 30, 2022) under the METRO and MAKRO brands.

At the moment, the company shared no information on the nature of this cyberattack, but IT infrastructure outages are usually linked to ransomware attacks.

"We will continue intensive analysis and monitoring and provide updates as required. METRO sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience the incident is causing for any of its customers and business partners," the wholesaler added today.

When contacted by BleepingComputer earlier today, a METRO spokesperson said the company couldn't share additional info on the incident due to the ongoing investigation.