Indigo stores and website hit by 'cybersecurity incident'

Indigo Books & Music Inc. says it is dealing with what it calls a "cybersecurity incident" that has affected customer orders in-store and online.

The incident at the Toronto-based retailer started on Wednesday. As of Thursday morning, Indigo's website was still offline.

"We are working with third-party experts to investigate and resolve the situation," the company said in a message posted on its website.

"Our hope is to have our systems back online as soon as possible."

Indigo says it temporarily can't process electronic payments, accept gift cards or deal with returns. Physical stores are limited to processing sales with cash only.

No other details of the cybersecurity problem have been released.

The company was dealing with customer questions about the service outage on social media.

Canadian retailers have increasingly experienced cyberattacks in recent months.

Sobeys parent company Empire Co. Ltd. recently grappled with a security breach that shut down its pharmacy services and other in-store functions.

The cybersecurity event in early November left customers unable to fill prescriptions for four days, while other in-store functions like self-checkout machines, gift card use and the redemption of loyalty points were offline for about a week.

Empire said in December the incident is expected to cost $25 million after insurance recoveries.