Disruptions at Hannaford branches due to a cybersecurity incident

PORTLAND (WGME) – Hannaford customers are still feeling the effects of a cybersecurity incident that hit the grocery chain last week.

Now Hannaford’s parent company says this goes well beyond Maine and involves law enforcement, too.

This cyber incident has been ongoing since the middle of last week and although stores are open, customers are unable to use many of Hannaford’s online services.

Hannaford originally said “network issues” were to blame for the outages at its stores.

But now its parent company, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize, says it’s all due to a cybersecurity incident that affected not only Hannaford, but other branded stores across the country.

According to the food giant, several systems were taken offline to protect them after the problem was discovered.

This resulted in websites being shut down, disruptions at pharmacies and cancellations of to-go orders.

Some of these services are still unavailable Monday evening.

Ahold Delhaize released a statement on the matter.

“All Ahold Delhaize USA branded stores are open and serving customers. We will continue to take measures to further protect our systems. The safety of our customers, employees and partners is our top priority.”

Ahold Delhaize says it has informed law enforcement about this cybersecurity issue.

The company has not said whether customer data was stolen or when any problems will be resolved.

In the meantime, Hannaford said stores and pharmacies are open, but some online services remain closed.