Ahold Delhaize says there’s no evidence cybersecurity incident compromised personal data

Dutch grocery behemoth Ahold Delhaize has confirmed a cyberattack forced it to temporarily shut down its IT systems, impacting the majority of its US and European brands. The multinational corporation first announced the security issue on October 12. The company stated that security teams worked to address the problem by taking "some" IT systems offline.

However, it was only on Monday that Ahold Delhaize officially confirmed the complete shutdown of certain systems, including websites and applications, affecting most of its brands. Frans Muller, president and CEO of Ahold Delhaize, explained that the decision to take the systems offline was a precautionary measure to protect them.

The investigation has so far confirmed that this was the correct decision. All physical stores remain open, and there is no evidence suggesting that any malicious actors have stolen sensitive customer, associate, or partner data. The Dutch National Cyber Security Centre and Dutch police have been notified about the incident, and Ahold Delhaize has also reported it to the Dutch authorities.

Albert Heijn's website and app have since returned to normal operation, with Ahold Delhaize expecting home deliveries to resume on Friday. Belgian e-commerce is fully functional, and Ahold Delhaize's American brands (Food Lion, Giant Food, Martin’s, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop) are expected to have their e-commerce services back "in the coming days."

The Etos and Gall & Gall websites are also back online, as are the "majority of websites and apps" across brands serving central and southeastern Europe. Ahold Delhaize has not yet responded to inquiries regarding the cyberattack, including whether it is linked to attacks on refrigeration controllers at hundreds of French supermarkets that began on October 11.

This is the second cyberattack Ahold Delhaize has faced in two years; a November 2024 digital breach disrupted brands across the organization, causing some Stop & Shop stores to struggle with filling prescriptions and Food Lion employees to experience delayed and missing deliveries. INC Ransom claimed responsibility for the attack at the time and leaked documents reportedly taken from the retailer's systems.

Ultimately, Ahold Delhaize determined that over 2.2 million people's data, including personal, financial, and health details, had been compromised.