Eastern States’ Grocers Shut Online Systems After Cyberattack

Popular grocery stores owned by Ahold Delhaize in New England, MidAtlantic and Southeastern states are open but online orders and systems have been shut down after a cybersecurity incident.

The Netherlands-based company said taking its website and apps offline is a precautionary measure. The physical grocery stores and pharmacies remain open and in-store systems including refrigeration and checkout systems have not been affected.

“Our teams are working with urgency to investigate the incident and restore affected systems safely,” the company, which is the fourth largest grocery retailer in the U.S., said in an update on Tuesday. “As they make progress in assessing and mitigating the issues, we are in the process of starting a controlled re-launch of certain systems.”

The company said it will refund customers for any unfilled online orders made through websites or apps.

The affected stores 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

The company said it is working with internal and external cybersecurity experts and engaging with authorities.

The update said that because the investigation is ongoing it not sharing further details, while adding that thus far it has seen no evidence that any customer and associate data was taken in this cybersecurity incident.

In what Ahold Delhaize said it believes is 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.

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.