Garmin begins recovery from ransomware attack

The American GPS and fitness-tracker company Garmin is dealing with the aftermath of a ransomware attack, the BBC has confirmed.

Owners of its products had been unable to use its services since Thursday.

However, some of its online tools are now being provided in a "limited" state, according to its online dashboard.

It is not known if the firm paid the blackmailers, but a source said it was in the "final stage of recovery".

The BBC's cyber reporter Joe Tidy said the malware involved was Wasted Locker - a program that scrambles the target's data, and was first detected in the wild around April. Victims are typically contacted after their computers are infected, and told they must transfer funds if they want to return the files to their original state.

Some customers have reported that Garmin's services appear to be "partially" working again.

Earlier reports claimed that the company had been asked to pay $10m (£7.79m) to get its systems back online.

Garmin has yet to comment.