Ahold Delhaize cyberattack disrupted US grocery pharmacies and online orders

Ahold Delhaize said on Friday, November 8, 2024 that it had detected a cybersecurity issue within its US network. The Dutch-headquartered grocery group took a number of systems offline in response, brought in outside security experts and notified law enforcement.

The disruption reached all five of the company's US grocery banners: Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. Hannaford was hit hardest. Its website and app went dark and the chain canceled pickup and delivery orders, telling customers that its associates could not view orders that had been placed. The outage was still running on Monday, November 11. Some pharmacies across the banners could not accept phone calls, though most Hannaford pharmacies continued filling prescriptions.

Physical stores stayed open and continued to accept major forms of payment, and there were local reports of thinly stocked shelves across New England.

Ahold Delhaize did not say what caused the incident, whether ransomware was involved, or whether any data had been taken. Cybersecurity Dive noted that the attack landed ahead of the holiday shopping season and followed the departure of the company's chief information security officer.