Ahold Delhaize struck by cyberattack, stores remain open

Dutch-Belgian multinational retail company Ahold Delhaize has recently detected a ‘cybersecurity issue’ within its United States network.

“Immediately upon detecting the issue, our security teams began an investigation with the assistance of external cybersecurity experts,” the company says in a brief statement regarding the incident.

The IT department of Ahold Delhaize has taken steps to assess and mitigate the impact of the attack, including taking some of its systems offline to help to protect them.

According to the company, the safeguards that had to be taken have affected some of Ahold Delhaize’s USA brands and services, including a number of pharmacies and e-commerce operations. American news outlets report that supermarket chain Hannaford and Giant Food pharmacies have been impacted as well.

“Each of Ahold Delhaize USA’s brands’ stores are open and serving customers. We will continue to take actions to further protect our systems. The security of our customers, associates and partners is a top priority,” Ahold Delhaize states.

As of writing, no hacking group or ransomware operation has claimed responsibility for the cyberattack.

Ahold Delhaize is a Dutch-Belgian multinational retail and wholesale company that was founded by merging two companies in 2016: Ahold and Delhaize Group. Its business format includes supermarkets, convenience stores, online grocery, online non-food drugstores, and liquor stores.

Ahold Delhaize employs over 402,000 employees and has 7,716 stores across nine countries worldwide, including the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Luxembourg, Romania, Serbia and the United States.

The retailer’s revenue amounted to € 88.6 billion in 2023, its net income to € 1.9 billion. Ahold Delhaize is active in the US with brand names Food Lion, The Giant Company, Giant Food, Hannaford and Stop & Shop.