Earlier this week, my daughter and I stopped by our neighborhood (gayborhood?) Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy Store™ at 39th and Penn for an after-school milkshake.
Well, at least that was the plan.
When I pulled up to the drive-thru kiosk, two old, beat-up cars were parked in reverse, blocking access to both the speakers and menu boards. If you’d like some photographic evidence, here you go:
Since the parking lot at that Braum’s already feels like something out of Assault on Precinct 13, I figured we’d mosey over to my other neighborhood Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy Store™ near 63rd and May.
To my surprise, they only had one drive-thru lane open. The other—just like the ones on Penn—was blocked off and restricted.
After I placed my order and slowly trudged my way through the line, I noticed that the cashier—who was licking a vanilla ice cream cone, mind you—took about 30 to 45 seconds to process my credit card payment. I just figured that was Braum’s being Braum’s—they’ve never really been known for speed or service.
Anyway, after a longer-than-normal wait, we got our junior shakes—the kid went with Cookies 'N Cream, and I chose old-school Strawberry—and we headed home, forgetting about the drive-thru weirdness.
Well, until an Ogle Mole shot me an email.
They informed me that—for the second time in a couple of months—Braum’s was hit with a ransomware attack by a group of criminals called Hunters International!
This hack has essentially shut down the Braum’s network, forcing the chain to close drive-thrus and—terrifyingly—rely on employees to tabulate payments and orders by hand!
Basically, it’s like a Walking Dead episode has come to life!
Check this out:
Hi, just wanted to give a heads-up about what's going on at Braum's right now.
A few months ago, Braum's was hit by a group called Hunter's International. They hacked into the Braum's network, shut down the entire company, held its information hostage, and demanded a ransom.
Braum's created a workaround, and it's unclear if they ever paid the ransom or just rebuilt the network and decided to live on hope and wishful thinking.
Two days ago, it happened again.
First of all, I double-checked, and—yes—it does look like Braum’s was hacked a few months back.
According to Halcyon, the hackers got away with 1.5 TBs of employee data, proprietary product formulas, QuickBooks financial data, and even Drew Braum’s emails.
There’s no word on whether they also accessed the entire catalog of Ernest P. Worrell Braum’s commercials:
Here’s more from what the Mole told us.
I haven’t hit up Braum’s, Mr. Robot, or Verne to verify their claims, but the Mole seems to know what they’re talking about:
If you have been to Braum's in the last two days, you'll notice that the drive thru is not open and they can only accept cash. The hackers have struck again. The only info I have as to what's going to happen now is they are going to each store individually to bring them back online. They're averaging a few stores a day and are prioritizing the busiest stores...
In closing, if you want to experience a little old-school Braum's where the cashiers have to do actual math to determine your post tax price and have learned to count back change, then don't delay. The food might even taste a little better. For a limited time only.
That’s wild stuff, but should we really be surprised? If you had to guess which local restaurant chain would be hacked, Braum’s would be the logical choice. I bet Drew Braum’s password is password, or the hackers got in through the old Braum’s website’s old e-postcard feature:
I like to poke fun at Braum’s, but as someone who’s been going there for 46 years, I really hope they get this figured out.
They’re an Oklahoma institution, and whether you’re going through the drive-thru or searching for a clean table inside, there just aren’t a lot of places to get a cheap and delicious after-school shake that’s made right about 75% of the time.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
