Ahold Delhaize Restarts Systems After Major Cybersecurity Attack
Ahold Delhaize is gradually restoring services for Albert Heijn and sister brands after a cyberattack disabled online shopping and disrupted Dutch supply chains.
A cybersecurity incident beginning Sunday afternoon severely disrupted operations for Ahold Delhaize and its Dutch brands, Albert Heijn, Etos, and Gall & Gall. The parent company took multiple systems offline as a precautionary measure, which disabled online shopping, home deliveries, and loyalty programs. While physical stores remained open, the outage caused significant supply chain failures, leaving fruit and vegetable shelves empty in several Dutch cities.
Investigations revealed suspicious attack traffic routed through servers in the United States, Poland, Moldova, and Turkey. Security sources suggest hackers may have breached Ahold Delhaize's U.S. arm to target Dutch systems. By Tuesday, the company began a controlled restart of certain systems and reported no evidence that customer data was stolen, though it warned customers to remain vigilant against phishing attempts.
Distribution centers have resumed partial operations to restock shelves, although fresh produce remains limited. In Belgium, Delhaize experienced a more limited impact, with online ordering resuming under restricted delivery slots. Ahold Delhaize denied any connection to a simultaneous cyberattack in France that disrupted refrigeration systems at other supermarket chains. Competitors including Jumbo, ALDI, and PLUS reported increased foot traffic and online orders during the disruption.
