Canadian bookstore chain Indigo Books & Music, which was hit by a cyberattack on February 8 that compromised the company's ability to process online sales, released a statement on Friday saying that while the ransomware attack left no indication personal customer information had been accessed, some employee data was compromised.
"We immediately engaged third-party experts to investigate and resolve the situation," Indigo said of the breach. "As part of this remediation work, we proactively shut down some of our systems to prevent data from being improperly accessed. Through our investigation we learned there is no reason to believe customer data has been improperly accessed, but that some employee data was. Since this incident, we have been working with third party experts to strengthen our cybersecurity practices, enhance data security measures and review our existing controls."
Both current and former Indigo employees are being notified that their information may have been affected. Indigo has also retained TransUnion of Canada to offer two years of credit monitoring and identity-theft protection services at no cost.
Indigo's customers remain unable to make purchases online except for "select books," CBC News wrote, adding that when the incident began more than two weeks ago, Indigo "was only able to process purchases made in store with cash, but some of its services, including over-the-counter credit and debit payments as well as exchanges and returns, have since been restored."
---
Sales of English-language titles in Germany rose from 3.1% of total sales revenue to 4.5% between 2020 and 2022, according to Buchreport. In fiction, the rise has been even steeper, with the market share lifting from 2.5% to just over 5% in the same period, fueled by TikTok hit authors Colleen Hoover, Alice Oseman, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Ali Hazelwood, the Bookseller reported. Other bestselling writers with high English-language sales in the markets include Matt Haig, Ana Huang, J.K. Rowling, Sally Rooney and Madeline Miller.
"The development--presumably fueled by the impatience of BookTok fans to read their favorite authors' latest offering as quickly as possible, in whatever edition is available--means that publishers are under increasing pressure to bring out the German licensed editions parallel to the original edition, speeding up the usual publishing process," the Bookseller wrote, noting that Buchreport said that whereas in the past rush-publishing was done as an exceptional measure and usually involved very topical nonfiction titles, it is now becoming much more usual in popular fiction/YA.
---
Bookseller moment: Scottish bookseller Far from the Madding Crowd in Linlithgow, posted on Instagram: "What a glorious day today: spring is in the air! And lambs* are in our window: we've got a huge range of springtime books & activity ideas + Mother's Day cards & gifts! #ChooseBookshops *not real lambs sadly!" --Robert Gray