Olympus, a Japanese tech giant, disclosed that it was hit by a cyberattack that forced it to take down its IT systems in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. 

Olympus is a company founded in 1919 being a technology leader in the medical sector that develops cutting-edge opto-digital products, life science, and consumer electronics products. On October 12, Olympus announced on its website that it is investigating a potential cybersecurity incident discovered on October 10 and currently working with the utmost priority to fix this issue.  

The company stated, "Upon detection of suspicious activity, we immediately mobilized a specialized response team including forensics experts, and we are currently working with the highest priority to resolve this issue." 

"As part of the investigation and containment, we have suspended affected systems and have informed the relevant external partners. The current results of our investigation indicate the incident was contained to the Americas with no known impact to other regions." 

The firm did not state whether or not the customer or corporate data was obtained or stolen as a result of the "potential cybersecurity incident," but added that it would share updated information on the assault as soon as it becomes available. 

Olympus added, "We are working with appropriate third parties on this situation and will continue to take all necessary measures to serve our customers and business partners in a secure way. Protecting our customers and partners and maintaining their trust in us is our highest priority." 

According to an Olympus spokesman, the firm discovered no indication of data loss during an ongoing investigation into this occurrence. 

This incident comes after the ransomware assault on Olympus' EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) IT infrastructure in early September. Although Olympus did not disclose the identities of the attackers, ransom notes discovered on damaged computers showed that BlackMatter ransomware operators orchestrated the attack. 

The identical ransom notes directed victims to a Tor website previously used by the BlackMatter group to connect with its victims. Although Olympus did not provide many specifics about the nature of the attack that impacted its Americas IT systems, ransomware groups are notorious for carrying out their operations on weekends and holidays in order to minimize detection. 

In an August joint alert, the FBI and CISA stated that they had "observed an increase in highly impactful ransomware attacks occurring on holidays and weekends—when offices are normally closed—in the United States, as recently as the Fourth of July holiday in 2021."