A well-known business in Colchester is getting back on its feet after a ransomware attack cost it thousands of dollars, according to the owner.

In late July, computers stopped working at Wendell’s Furniture.

“We thought it was something in-house. We called our IT guy. He said ‘Whoa guys, you have been attacked by ransomware’,” said Wendell Farrell, owner of Wendell’s Furniture.

Farrell had to shell out thousands of dollars to the ransomware attackers to get control of his computer systems.

He also lost customer records from the last seven months despite the fact he had been backing up his data.

“What they do is they go in and they sit there dormant for 6 months so when they do attack you and shut you down, you can’t say ‘well I’ll just use my backup’ because they would have been using compromised data,” he said.

Farrell says this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to his business.

Customers who have not received an expected delivery from Wendell’s Furniture should contact the store.

“We’re finally crawling out of that hole now and we’re making deliveries but for awhile, we had 4 trucks not delivering because we didn’t know anything about where to go,” said Farrell.

Farrell compares his current situation to a dog running into the woods.

“He can only run in halfway and then he’s running out. Well, we are now at the point of we are running out of the woods. It’s a big woods. But those first few days were horrific,” he said.

Farrell says the hackers accessed customer data, including phone numbers and addresses, but not financial information.

Susceptible parts of the business’ cyber infrastructure have been replaced and firewalls have been reinforced.