London Drugs stores in Saskatoon could be open again soon following 'cybersecurity incident'
Saskatoon’s three London Drugs locations are set to re-open soon, one week after a data breach shut down stores across western Canada.
The retail and pharmacy chain closed all of its 79 locations across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba on April 28 in response to a "cybersecurity incident."
Phone lines to its stores were out of service for several days as part of the investigation into the incident, but were restored by Wednesday.
In a news release on Saturday, the company said it was beginning a gradual re-opening of stores, that its phone lines were open and pharmacists were standing by at all London Drugs stores to meet urgent care needs.
“As we have communicated over the last couple of days, our store systems are complex and connect with multiple third-party provider systems, all with different requirements,” the company said in a statement through a third-party public relations firm.
“We are continuing to work with our third-party cybersecurity experts to bring our systems online in a safe and secure manner. This is a time-consuming process and, rather than delay until all services and systems are fully available, we have opened our core services in some stores to meet the healthcare and everyday needs of our customers as soon as possible.”
On Sunday, a staff member at the 8th Street location in Saskatoon said the store was still closed to the general public, but should be open again “in the coming days.”
“We are only turning on systems we have full confidence are safe and secure,” the company said in its statement on Saturday.
The company says pharmacists are on site at all locations to fill emergency prescriptions, its stores that hold Canada Post offices are all accessible, and its insurance services call centre is open for calls.
At this point in the investigation, London Drugs says it has found “no evidence that any customer databases have been compromised,” including pharmacy patients.
“In the event our ongoing investigation later determines that personal information was impacted, we will notify affected individuals in accordance with privacy laws.”
London Drugs said it would not be communicating which stores are opening and when, but advises customers to check its website and social media channels for updates.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Signs of Alzheimer’s were everywhere. Then his brain improved
Blood biomarkers of telltale signs of early Alzheimer’s disease in the brain of his patient, 55-year-old entrepreneur Simon Nicholls, had all but disappeared in a mere 14 months.
What we've learned so far in the Trump hush money trial and what to watch for as it wraps up
Testimony in the hush money trial of Donald Trump is set to conclude in the coming days, putting the landmark case on track for jury deliberations that will determine whether it ends in a mistrial, an acquittal — or the first-ever felony conviction of a former American president.
Sentencing trial set to begin for Florida man who executed 5 women at a bank in 2019
Zephen Xaver walked into a central Florida bank in 2019, fatally shot five women and then called police to tell them what he did. Now 12 jurors will decide whether the 27-year-old former prison guard trainee is sentenced to death or life without parole.
'How do you get hypothermia in a prison?' Records show hospitalizations among Virginia inmates
The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: "unbearable" conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia.
The Israel-Hamas war is testing whether campuses are sacrosanct places for speech and protest
Administrators on some campuses have called in local police to break up pro-Palestinian protesters demanding that their schools divest from Israel in demonstrations that Israel's allies say are antisemitic and make campuses unsafe. From Columbia University in New York to the University of California, Los Angeles, thousands of students and faculty have been arrested in the past month.
Helicopter carrying Iran's president suffers a 'hard landing,' state TV says without further details
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a "hard landing" on Sunday, Iranian state television reported, without immediately elaborating.
Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters
Lawyers are questioning Canada’s approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.
The secret Italian lakes that most tourists don't know about
Italy has dozens of secret smaller lakes that boast superb scenery, unknown to mass tourism, where locals get together on day trips and enjoy picnics.
Flammable kids' sleepwear, salmonella-contaminated chips: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued recalls for various items this week, including kids' bassinets, chips, and stoves. Here's what to watch out for.