Ahold Delhaize takes systems offline after cyberattack: Global retail giant says ‘cybersecurity incident’ affected systems, but stores remain open
- Ahold Delhaize took systems offline after cyberattack, although details remain limited
- The outages affected employee services and customer service websites at multiple retail brands.
- The company is investigating the incident amid concerns of another major ransomware-related attack.
Ahold Delhaize has suffered a cyber attack that forced it to disconnect parts of its IT network.
On October 12, 2026, the retail giant issued a brief statement stating that it was experiencing a “security issue” within its network. “Our teams are taking steps to assess and mitigate the issue,” he said. “This includes taking some systems offline to help protect them. At this time, our stores are open and serving customers.”
We don’t know which parts of the operation were affected, how the attack occurred, and whether or not any confidential company or client data was exposed. We do not know if, how many, and to what extent customers were affected.
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Typically, when a company shuts down its network to contain an incident, it is due to a ransomware attack and its data exfiltration efforts. However, no threat actor has yet claimed responsibility for this attack, and as of press time, no data has appeared on the dark web.
“Protecting our infrastructure in the best interest of our customers, associates and partners is a top priority,” the company concluded. “We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused to customers and partners.”
Hackers take over Delhaize
Ahold Delhaize is a multinational wholesale and retail company that operates more than 9,400 stores in the United States, Europe and Indonesia.
It has approximately 400,000 employees, serving approximately 60 million customers weekly, both in stores and online. Brands under its umbrella include Delhaize, Maxi, Mega Image, Albert, bol, Alfa Beta, Etos, Gall & Gall and Profi in Europe, and Food Lion, Stop & Shop, Giant Food and Hannaford in the US market, according to BleepingComputer.
Unfortunately, he has a lot of experience in cyber attacks. In mid-November 2024, an attack on the company caused US grocery stores and pharmacies to be unable to properly serve their customers. Even then, Ahold Delhaize shut down parts of its network to contain the attack and struggled with phone lines being disabled. It was later confirmed that this was a ransomware attack launched by the INC Ransom threat actor.
In the attack, hackers stole sensitive data from more than 2.2 million people, the company later confirmed through a filing with the Maine Attorney General’s Office. He said the data may have included internal employment records of current and former employees.
The combination of stolen data varied from person to person, but generally included full names, mailing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, government-issued identification numbers, bank account numbers, health information, and other employment-related information.
Problems for retailers
That attack, which apparently took more than a week to remediate, was disturbing enough that employees expressed their annoyance on social media. At one point, the Stop & Shop pharmacy was unable to fill prescriptions. Food Lion, on the other hand, had to address missing and late deliveries. Instacart order return dates were constantly pushed back.
beepcomputer Employees at US regional supermarket chain Stop & Shop are now having trouble accessing their schedules and pay stubs as a direct result of the latest attack. Customers have not been able to use websites, apps and customer service platforms at Albert Heijn, Etos and Gall & Gall stores in the Netherlands, or at Delhaize in Belgium.
The publication also reported, citing an internal memo shared by Lion Food employees in the United States, that the company marked the attack as an IT outage and told staff that “your store may not be able to purchase, prepare or deliver orders.”
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