Swiss Chalet, Harvey's, other big chains hit by 'malware outbreak'

A Canadian company that owns many popular restaurant chains says it washit witha "malware outbreak" on Friday,causing a "partial network outage" at some locations.

Recipe Unlimited formerly Cara Operationssaidcertain restaurants under the brandsSwiss Chalet, Harvey's, Milestones, Kelseys, Montana's, Bier Markt, East Side Mario's, The Landing Group of Restaurants and Prime Pubs brands have been affected.

As a result, some locations have temporarily closed while others are offering reduced services such as nodebit and credit card transactions unless they can be done manually.

Malware is malicious software created todamage or disable a computer system. Recipe Unlimited declined to offer further details about the attack on its computer system or specific numbers of restaurants affected.

The companysaid in response to the incident, it took a number of its systems offline and suspended internet access at affected locations "as a precaution."

"Our priority is to continue working diligently with third-party security experts and internal teams to resolve the situation as quickly and effectively as possible," said Recipe Unlimitedin a statement.

The problem sparked many customercomplaints on social media. Lando Fioreposted a photo on East Side Mario's Facebook site showing a sign, displayed at one of its restaurants in Newmarket, Ont. It stated that the restaurantwas closed for the day because "the head office computer was hacked."

Fioretold CBCNews that he and a friend drove to anEast Side Mario's location in Aurora, Ont., on Sunday and discoveredit was closed. They thought it was an isolated incident and decided to dine instead at the Newmarket location.

"We were just appalled," said Fiore,upon discovering that the Newmarket location was also closed. "It can't be good for business."

Over the the weekend, many people also complained on Swiss Chalet's Facebook siteabout slow service and difficulty ordering online. The chain repeatedly replied that "due to unforeseen circumstances, we are currently experiencing a system outage." It added that its"teams are working diligently to have this corrected."

Recipe Unlimited franchises and/or operates more than 1,000 restaurants, mainly in Canada.