For three weeks in November and December 2021, iconic Canadian clothing chains Bootlegger, Cleo and Ricki's found themselves paralyzed — staring down the barrel of the "critical holiday season" but prevented by ransomware from moving inventory.

The attack occurred on Nov. 23, but the businesses weren't able to regain access to their internal systems until Dec. 13 — a lag time that forced the 221 affected stores to mount heavy promotions in order to offload the substantial portion of seasonal clo…