Card Data Breach at Maine Supermarket Chain
Hannaford Bros. Co., a Scarborough, Maine, supermarket chain with 165 stores has announced "containment of a data intrusion into its computer network that resulted in the theft of customer credit and debit card numbers. No personal information, such as names or addresses, was accessed or obtained." The AP reports that "about 4.2 million unique card numbers were exposed."
Hannaford continued:
This data was illegally accessed from Hannaford’s computer systems during the card authorization transmission process. Hannaford is cooperating with credit and debit card issuers to ensure that those customers who may be affected by the theft are protected.
The intrusion impacted Hannaford stores in New England and New York state and Sweetbay stores in Florida. Also affected are certain, independently-owned retail locations in the Northeast that carry Hannaford products.
“For more than 125 years, Hannaford has been dedicated to earning the trust of our customers, and we sincerely regret any concern or inconvenience this has caused,” said Ronald C. Hodge, Hannaford president and CEO. “We have taken aggressive steps to augment our network security capabilities. Hannaford doesn’t collect, know or keep any personally identifiable customer information from transactions.”
Hannaford was first made aware of unusual credit card activity on Feb. 27, and immediately initiated a comprehensive investigation with the assistance of leading information technology security experts to safeguard customer information and determine the cause. The company also alerted law enforcement authorities and is working closely with them in the ongoing criminal investigation.
The company is currently aware of fewer than 2,000 cases of reported fraud related to this crime.
Hannaford is advising customers to take the following steps:
Customers should carefully review their financial institution and credit card statements, and immediately contact their credit card company or issuing bank with any questions or concerns about individual charges.
Customers with questions may call Hannaford’s dedicated customer assistance line at 866-591-4580.
Hannaford Bros. Co., based in Scarborough, Maine, operates 165 stores under the Hannaford Supermarket and Hannaford Supermarket and Pharmacy names. Hannaford employs about 27,000 associates. Sweetbay Supermarket, based in Tampa, operates 106 stores in Florida. Both companies are owned by Delhaize Group of Brussels, Belgium.
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