Grocery giant Ahold Delhaize has confirmed it has suffered a cyber attack that has forced it to take business critical IT infrastructure offline.
The multinational retailer is the parent company of grocery stores including Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Food Lion and The Giant Company.
As a result of the cyber attack US based grocery stores and pharmacies were unable to provide full service to their customers.
In a press release Ahold Delhaize confirmed the ‘ cybersecurity issue within its U.S. network.’ They also state that they have begun the investigation process with a team of external cybersecurity experts as well as notifying the relevant law enforcement agencies.
Systems taken offline
As a result of the investigation some systems were intentionally taken offline to ‘help protect them.’ This has affected stores across the US as well as pharmacies and ecommerce.
The impact has been far reaching with Stop & Shop pharmacies unable to refill as well as phone lines not working. The Food Lion faced missing deliveries whilst Instacart orders were heavily delayed.
The Hannaford website is currently completely offline with a description message reading ‘Sorry! We're having technical issues with our servers. We're working as quickly as possible to restore service’.
The exact nature of the attack and the extent of the data breach are still under investigation. However, experts speculate that ransomware could be involved, as this type of attack has become increasingly common in recent years. Change Healthcare, for example, faced a ransomware attack that caused 100 million patients to have their personal data compromised.
The Ahold Delhaize is yet another example of the importance of cyber security practices across the supply chain to prevent a cyber attack. Organizations must invest in advanced security technologies, employee training, and incident response plans to protect themselves from future attacks.
