Panera Bread hit by ransomware attack, systems down, data breached.
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Panera Bread was hit by a week-long IT outage, attributed to a ransomware attack. The ransomware incident encrypted numerous virtual machines within the company's IT infrastructure, severely hindering access to essential data and applications.
The outage began on March 22 and led to widespread disruptions across Panera Bread's operations. The company's internal IT systems, phone lines, point-of-sale systems, website, and mobile apps were all affected. Employees were unable to access work schedules, forcing them to contact managers directly for shift information. The inability to process electronic payments meant that stores could only accept cash transactions during the outage. The company's rewards program and the Panera Sip Club subscription service were also disrupted, leaving customers unable to redeem points or rewards.
Panera Bread has managed to restore some of its systems by utilizing backups. The identity of the ransomware group behind this attack remains undisclosed, as no claims of responsibility have surfaced.
Panera Bread has refrained from issuing comments or details on the outage or the cyberattack
Update - As of 13th of June 2024, Panera Bread is notifying employees of a data breach following the ransomware attack in March
Affected entities are Panera Bread and its franchises (2,160 cafes in the U.S. and Ontario, Canada). The compromised data includes:
- Names
- Social Security numbers
- Potentially other employment-related information
Panera is offering One-year CyEx's Identity Defense Total membership for affected individuals.
The number of affected employees and threat actor identity undisclosed
As of 17th of June, Bleeping Computer reports that Panera Bread likely paid a ransom after a March ransomware attack, as suggested by internal emails and employee claims, resulting in stolen personal information, including names and social security numbers.
As of 5th of February 2026, after failed extortion attempts the ShinyHunters gang apparently leaked data of about 5 million Panera customers including emails, names, addresses, and phone numbers, which was then leaked online.
