New England Grocers Stop & Shop, Hannaford Coping With Cyber Attack

The Dutch company that owns Stop & Shop and Hannaford grocery stores across New England is dealing with a cyberattack that has disrupted online shopping, product deliveries and pharmacy services at some locations.

Ahold Delhaize USA confirmed the attack in a statement on November 8. The company said that its security teams launched an investigation into the attack with the help of outside cybersecurity experts and that law enforcement has been notified.

“Our teams are taking steps to assess and mitigate the issue. This includes taking some systems offline to help protect them. 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 stated.

The company offered no further details on the attack or its impact.

The attack shut down websites and online grocery shopping for the two US brands. Stop & Shop’s website has been restored but Hannaford’s website was still offline as of Wednesday.

Hannaford posted a statement on Facebook explaining that online ordering is not working and a few of its pharmacies can’t process prescriptions.

The attack appears to have disrupted product deliveries and stocking of some shelves in addition to the processing of payments by some pharmacies. Stores have remained open but consumers in Maine, Connecticut and Massachusetts have told local media that some products are missing and some shelves are bare at Stop & Shop.

Boston 25 News visited a Stop & Shop south of Boston in Massachusetts and found empty shelves in the produce, meat, and poultry sections.

Signs in some Stop & Shop stores explain that technology system outages may mean delays in product deliveries but employees are working to restock shelves as quickly as possible.

The cybersecurity news site The Record said no hacking group has claimed credit for the attack. It also said supermarkets are “often brought down by ransomware gangs and cybercriminal groups eager to exploit the urgency of restoration efforts.”

Stop & Shop has more than 400 stores throughout New York, New England and New Jersey. Hannaford has more than 180 stores in New England and New York. Ahold Delhaize also owns US chains Food Lion and Giant Foods.