US grocery stores hit by cybersecurity outage at food giant

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Ahold Delhaize confirms being hit by cyberattack
Multiple retail stores across the US were affected by the attack
Other details are not known at this time

Multinational retailer Ahold Delhaize has confirmed recently suffering a cyberattack which forced it to shut down parts of its IT infrastructure. As a result, some of its grocery stores and pharmacies, mainly those in the United States, could not service their customers properly.

In a press release, the company said it recently detected a cybersecurity issue within its US network, brought in third-party experts to assist, notified the police, and brought its network offline.

The company operates a variety of supermarket, convenience store, and online grocery brands across Europe and the United States, including brands like Food Lion, Stop & Shop, and Giant.

Delivery delays and other problems

“This issue and subsequent mitigating actions have affected certain Ahold Delhaize USA brands and services including a number of pharmacies and certain e-commerce operations,” the company said in its announcement.

“Each of Ahold Delhaize USA’s brands' stores are open and serving customers. We will continue to take actions to further protect our systems. The security of our customers, associates and partners is a top priority.”

A report from The Register claims woes for US retailers have been going on for a week now, resulting in even the staff voicing their annoyance on social media.

Not all retailers were affected the same way, however - as at one point, the pharmacy at Stop & Shop could not refill prescriptions. The problem was only exacerbated with phone lines being down, as well. The Food Lion, on the other hand, had to address missing and delayed deliveries. Instacart orders return dates were constantly being pushed back.

At the moment, further details are scarce, and The Register claims that employees were told not to discuss the incident with the media.

Usually, when a company shuts down its systems, it’s to prevent them from being encrypted, and to prevent hackers from exfiltrating information - which usually happens in a ransomware attack.

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Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.