Supermarket owners are being warned against negotiating with cyber terrorists.

The warning comes from the Cyber Security Incident Reporting Team of Trinidad and Tobago (TTCSIRT).

This comes in the aftermath of a cyber security attack on supermarket chain Massy Stores last week Thursday.

The incident led to the closure of Massy’s entire 23 stores island wide.

The attack caused a failure of Massy’s IT system which prevented customers from shopping not only at its stores, but in-store pharmacies and affected its money transfer services – Surepay and Moneygram.

Stores resumed operations the following day.

Anish Bachu of TTCSIRT strongly warns supermarket owners against engaging with cyber terrorists.

Mr. Bachu is also advising supermarket operators to run regular updates of protection software on their systems to withstand attacks.

He says what happened at Massy Stores last week is nothing new, saying not every incident makes the news, only the big ones.

Mr. Bachu was part of a panel hosted by the Supermarket Association of Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday to discuss cyber attacks.