Eastern States’ Supermarkets Back Online After Cyber Incident

The websites and online shopping services of grocery stores owned by Ahold Delhaize in New England, MidAtlantic and Southeastern states are back up and running after having been shut down for about eight days due to a cyber incident.

The Netherlands-based company took its website and apps offline on October 12 as a precautionary measure. This decision affected most of its brands across Europe and the United States. The physical grocery stores and pharmacies remained open and in-store systems including refrigeration and checkout systems were not affected.

The affected U.S. stores that are now back online include:

• Stop & Shop: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.
• Hannaford: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York.
• Food Lion: 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Delaware, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
• Giant Food: Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia

Ahold Delhaize, which is the fourth largest grocery retailer in the U.S., said its investigation thus far has determined that the suspicious activity resulted from the “malicious actions of others.” The company declined to share further details while the investigation continues but said there is still “no evidence that any sensitive customer, associate or partner data was taken.”

The Cost of Losing Your Cool: Tallying the Losses of a Supermarket Cyberattack

In the U.S., some Ahold Delhaize stores suffered a cyberattack in November 2024 when a ransomware group successfully breached Ahold Delhaize USA Services LLC. That attack compromised the personal and financial information of 2.2 million individuals, including employees and associates.

In what Ahold Delhaize said was an unrelated matter in Europe, hackers raised the temperature of refrigerators and freezers at hundreds of French supermarkets to as high 122 degrees Fahrenheit overnight, causing fires and spoiling food. The Paris prosecutor’s called it a “large-scale” attack that was affecting several major food retailers across France, leading to food losses and fires.

Topics
Cyber