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.”

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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.