Hannaford still offline a week after cyberattack on French supermarkets
Hannaford’s Online Services Down as Parent Company Battles Cybersecurity Issue
A wave of digital disruption hit Hannaford supermarkets across Maine and the Northeast on Monday, as the grocery chain’s websites, mobile app, and Hannaford To Go pickup and delivery services remained offline following a cybersecurity incident at its parent company, Ahold Delhaize. The outage, now entering its second week, began the same day that separate cyberattacks forced supermarket refrigeration systems in France into continuous defrost cycles, causing widespread food loss and structure fires at approximately seven hundred stores across the country on October 12.
While Ahold Delhaize has emphasized that the French and U.S. incidents are not connected, some Hannaford locations have recently experienced refrigeration equipment problems. Caitlin Cortelyou, a Hannaford spokesperson, said the network disruption affecting the retailer’s digital platforms is tied to a security issue within Ahold Delhaize’s broader system. “The issue impacting some of our stores is specific to the refrigeration equipment itself, not other factors,” Cortelyou said. She added that, though the company cannot comment on Ahold Delhaize’s internal investigation, it does not believe the parent company’s matter is related to the attacks that knocked out cooling units across France. “While we can’t comment on another company’s issue, we do not have any reason to believe the Ahold Delhaize matter is related to the issue impacting some French retailers,” she said.
Hannaford’s 68 stores in Maine, part of a 188-store system based in Scarborough and employing about 9,500 workers from York to Fort Kent, remained open for in-person shopping Monday. The company encouraged customers unable to access Hannaford’s usual online channels to use third-party delivery platforms such as Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats. Cortelyou noted that no sensitive customer, associate, or partner data has been reported compromised, and that the investigation into the cybersecurity incident is ongoing. “As the investigation is ongoing, we are not sharing further details that could compromise security measures or interfere with our response efforts,” an Ahold Delhaize statement read.
The French cyberattacks, which occurred on October 12, targeted refrigeration systems in roughly seven hundred supermarkets, forcing units into continuous defrost cycles and raising internal temperatures to 50 degrees Celsius, approximately 122 degrees Fahrenheit. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told parliament that while the attacks posed no immediate threat to the nation’s overall food supply, they “touch the heart of our food security.” Ahold Delhaize, which also operates stores under the Albert Heijn and Delhaize banners in Europe, said it had taken systems offline as precautionary measures and that European stores were back online Monday, with U.S. e-commerce services expected to return in the coming days.
The situation underscores how cyber threats can ripple through global retail networks, even as officials on both sides of the Atlantic stress that immediate food security has not been compromised. Hannaford customers across the state can still visit stores in person, and the company said it will provide updates as the network situation develops.
