Crystal D shares operations update & gratitude following cyber incident

Crystal D, a supplier of crystal awards and gifts, said its systems are fully operational following a recent cyber-attack, and the company expresses appreciation for the support it received from across the industry.

Crystal D immediately took its systems offline when it suspected the incident in early March, then thoroughly assessed the security of its data before bringing them back online. The company previously shared that its inspection showed no indication of any customer or employee information being accessed.

“We are thankful for the quick response of our information security team, as well as our outside partners who painstakingly combed through everything to ensure the integrity of our systems,” said Mike Irvine, Crystal D’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “Their expertise is one of the many silver linings we are grateful to have had during a stressful time.”

Showered with support 

Irvine shared that despite Crystal D’s employees having to do many tasks “the old-fashioned way,” including providing quotes and entering orders manually, 97.25% of the orders received during the outage were produced and shipped on time.

He went on to say that the support the company received from its customers in the days following the incident, as well as partners and contacts across the industry, was “incredibly heartening,” and that having so many people reach out did wonders for buoying employees’ spirits.

“Our Memory Makers went infinitely above and beyond the call to ensure our customers’ orders were managed as best as possible despite the speed bumps caused by working offline,” Irvine said. “Hearing from our friends outside Crystal D who said they’re here for us, and knowing they were extending grace, meant the world.”

Bridget Dahlgren, Crystal D’s executive vice president of marketing and sales, echoed Irvine’s sentiments.

“We received care packages, we had customers who moved and shifted their dates to help us prioritize the most urgent projects, and we had support from direct competitors,” she said. “We are deeply thankful and will never forget all of the help, patience, and understanding expressed to us.”

In addition, Irvine credited Crystal D’s people-first mentality with how its teams rallied to support customers and complete orders while automated processes were paused.

“Our founder, Chuck Dahlgren, started building this culture decades ago, and it showed up big time for us over the past few weeks,” Irvine said. “Memory Makers leaped in to help in any way they could, cross-training each other and assisting with tasks that may ordinarily fall outside their job responsibilities, just to ensure our customers were being taken care of as best we could under the circumstances. During a really frustrating time, our people made the real difference.”