How to Manually Download Garmin Training Data
Did your Garmin watch suddenly stop working on Thursday? You’re not alone. The company was hit by an alleged ransomware attack that shut down all of its online services.
While Garmin has not officially confirmed any details, many employees have made statements on social media that the crashes were caused by a ransomware attack . An internal Garmin memo, obtained by Taiwanese tech news site iThome, blames the “virus” for the problems.
If details of the alleged attack are not yet available, it is clear that it was enough to force Garmin to block all of its services, including all Internet features on Garmin devices, Garmin’s website and even call centers, chat support and email.
It is currently unclear if any user data was affected or even stolen, or if it was simply encrypted and stored for ransom – if in fact it was a ransomware attack. As the ZDNet report says , data theft is a common part of today’s ransomware – so even if encryption is somehow circumvented, hackers will still get away with a mountain of potentially lucrative data. your Garmin devices, all is not lost.
How to save Garmin data
Regardless of the scale and severity of the incident – whether it’s a ransomware attack or a virus – there are ways to ensure that your workout data isn’t lost before Garmin (hopefully) recovers. Garmin users have shared helpful workarounds for getting the latest workout data synced correctly with third-party fitness apps like Strava or Training Peaks. These steps are taken by Marco Abis on Twitter:
- Connect your Garmin watch to your computer using the USB charging cable.
- Open the Garmin folder using the Finder on your Mac or Windows Explorer.
- Double-click the Actions folder.
- Copy the most recent .fit files to your computer.
- Then go to the website of the third-party fitness app on your computer.
- Log in to your account and manually download the .fit file from your computer (a web search should provide instructions on how to do this for the specific application you are using).
As far as potential data breaches are concerned, all we can recommend is to follow the same data protection techniques we always recommend when such attacks occur. If your Garmin user data appears to have been stolen, these steps will help prevent unwanted access to your accounts and further privacy breaches. And if it happens that your Garmin data has n’t been stolen, well, you’ll be better protected from potential leaks in the future.
[ ZDNet ]