Save-On-Foods rewards system breached by hackers

Thousands of customers of Save-On-Foods have received news their personal information had been accessed when the supermarket’s servers were breached by hackers earlier this week.

The company, part of the Pattison Food Group that includes Buy-Low Foods, Choices Markets, Nature’s Fare Markets, Nesters Market, and Urban Fare, said it detected unauthorized activity in a server containing information of its rewards system on Tuesday.

“(We) took immediate action that day to shut down the server and launch an investigation with a third-party cybersecurity expert. The incident was quickly contained, and we are in the process of notifying the appropriate authorities and privacy regulators,” said an email sent to affected customers on Friday night.

“We have today confirmed that your name, and, if provided, address, phone number, email addresses and date of birth on the More Rewards database were accessed during this incident.

” … We take our responsibility to protect personal information seriously and regret any inconvenience this may cause.”

When contacted for further information on Saturday, the company replied by forwarding the body of the email sent to customers on Friday.

A spokesperson wrote, “according to the information available” no other personal information — like passwords, credit card data, or transaction history — was accessed during the breach, and reiterated that they won’t contact a customer to request sensitive information like verification codes, banking or payment card information, Social Insurance Number, or security question answers.

“If you receive communication that appears to be from us or anyone else requesting sensitive personal information or asking you to click on a link or open an attachment that you were not expecting, we encourage you to verify the request using contact information you know to be legitimate, and not any contact information included in such request,” the email reads.

The company did not respond to questions as to the scope of the breach, how many customers had been affected, or if information like credit card numbers or transaction history could be potentially accessed through the affected severs.