Convenience store chain Circle K has confirmed that it was the victim of a cyberattack in Hong Kong and apologised to affected customers, a week after it suspended acceptance of electronic payments.
Circle K Hong Kong also said on Friday night that the company’s IT and cybersecurity teams, along with independent experts, were still working to restore services, stressing the situation was now “under control”, with investigations under way.
The chain first announced last Saturday that its electronic payments, except via Octopus, had been disrupted across its 400 stores in Hong Kong, and confirmed the next day that it was suffering from network issues.
It said at the time that it could not rule out a possible cyberattack.
A company spokesman confirmed on Friday night that the incident was caused by a network attack and apologised to affected customers, but did not state whether any of their data had been compromised.
The company said that while all stores remained open for business, electronic payments and some services such as parcel collection, e-wallet top-ups, bill payments and its member rewards programme were unavailable.
