Nick Scali Hit by Cyberattack: Orders Delayed, Systems Offline, Customers Left Waiting
Australia's $1.4 billion furniture retailer is working through a network shutdown that has stalled deliveries across the country, and most customers only found out when their table never arrived.
Key points
- Nick Scali, an Australian furniture chain with 132 stores worldwide, confirmed a cyberattack that forced it to take its computer systems offline, with the incident beginning around mid-week in the week prior to the company's statement.
- Deliveries and customer communications were badly disrupted, with some customers waiting at home for furniture that never arrived and receiving no explanation.
- The company says there is no evidence that customer data was accessed without authorisation.
- Nick Scali has referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the government body responsible for coordinating national responses to cyber threats.
- The retailer published a brief outage notice buried inside the "My account" section of its website, offering no proactive communication to affected customers.
Australia's Nick Scali, the publicly listed furniture retailer, confirmed a cyberattack that knocked its internal network offline after enquiries from the Sydney Morning Herald, which prompted the company to notify the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the country's main stock market regulator.
CEO Anthony Scali told reporters the attack happened "about mid-last week" and that staff had fallen back on paper records to track down customers whose orders were affected. "The system got attacked, like everyone else," he said. "Everything's offline. We're bringing some components back up now."
We've covered two retail breach incidents in the past 90 days; our earlier story on the Origin Energy breach, published 13 August, found two university researchers arguing that ordinary Australians are bearing the hidden costs of a worsening national pattern.
What does this mean for customers waiting on orders?
For many buyers, the first sign of trouble was a missing delivery. Melbourne customer Bill Bariamis stayed home on a Monday expecting a dining table. It did not arrive. A reschedule notice pointed him to Wednesday. That delivery did not arrive either. When he visited the Frankston store where he had bought the table, staff told him there had been "a major outage of computers and telephones for the last week" but had no further details.
"No delivery, no update, no information, no nothing," Bariamis said.
A customer service representative reached by phone described "a nationwide outage" affecting the company's central computer system, the mainframe that coordinates order tracking and links between stores. That representative said resolution could take "a couple of weeks".
Nick Scali's main website and social media accounts carried no alerts. Customers had to find the "My account" login page to see any mention of the outage.
What data was exposed?
Nick Scali says no customer data was accessed without authorisation. No specific categories or date ranges have been disclosed. The ACSC and Federal Police are investigating.
The attack type hasn't been confirmed. No ransomware group, meaning a criminal organisation that locks company files and demands payment to restore them, has publicly claimed responsibility as of publication.
| Detail | Current status |
|---|---|
| Attack discovered | Mid-week, week prior to ASX statement |
| Systems affected | Company-wide network, email, phones, order management |
| Customer data accessed | No evidence, per company statement |
| Regulators notified | Australian Federal Police, ACSC |
| Stores operational | Yes, with manual processes |
| Resolution estimate | "A couple of weeks" (customer service rep) |
Should you worry about your data?
Right now, the company says no. But the honest answer is that nobody outside the investigation knows yet. No breach notification letter has been issued, no data categories have been ruled out, and the regulators are still working through it. Watch for any follow-up from Nick Scali directly.
Common questions
What should affected customers do?
Visit the store where you purchased rather than relying on phone or email, as those channels remain disrupted. Keep receipts and written order confirmation. Monitor your bank statements: while there's no confirmed data theft, unusual transactions are worth catching early. If your payment details were saved in a Nick Scali account, change that password on any other site where you've reused it.
