Cyberattack disrupts Albert Heijn supply chains, leaving Dutch supermarket shelves empty. Photo Credit: G.Lanting / Wikimedia Commons
Dutch shoppers have been quite surprised this week as they walked into locations of the country’s most popular and largest supermarket chain, only to find shelves completely empty. Albert Heijn, a popular grocery store in the Netherlands, has only just begun restocking its shelves after a devastating cyberattack completely halted operations since Sunday, October 11, though according to representatives, some of its shelves may stay empty for some time yet.
‘Cyber incident’ forces Albert Heijn to halt operations immediately, leaving shelves barren
According to a representative of Albert Heijn’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, in a statement made on Tuesday, October 13, the supermarket chain was forced to carry out a “controlled restart of certain systems” following a “cyber incident” that took down many of its supply chains.
Sources from the cyber security sector told local Dutch outlet NOS that Albert Heijn identified suspicious traffic on its systems. The chain reportedly immediately switched systems off, which prevented further damage by hackers. Several servers were used in the attack, including from the US, Poland, Moldova, and Turkey, though the information does not mean that the attacks are coming from those locations, as the traffic can be routed through other countries.
No indication that consumer data has been stolen
So far, the company has not found any indication of stolen consumer data. It has not specified which of its systems are back up and running yet. Albert Heijn said in a written statement that it was taking the incident “very seriously”, but could not go into detail at this time.
Distribution centres forced to halt operations completely on Monday
Some of Albert Heijn’s six distribution centres in the Netherlands were forced to stop completely on Monday, October 12, leaving some shelves at popular grocery store locations completely empty. According to the company, several centres have resumed operations, and are now relying on extra deliveries to return products to the stores.
Some shelves, as the chain stated, may stay empty, including fruit, vegetables and other fresh produce. Online ordering and deliveries are still not possible, and customer service is still unreachable.
Other chains affected by malicious cyberattack
However, Albert Heijn has not been the only chain affected by the attack. Etos, a pharmacy, and off-licence chain Gall & Gall have also felt the effects of this breach of cyber security. Additionally, Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize, which is also owned by Albert Heijn’s parent company, reported having IT problems on Monday, October 12.
Though the incident happened on the same weekend as another major cyberattack on hundreds of French supermarkets that remotely affected refrigeration systems and forced the chain to throw away its fresh and frozen food, a spokesperson from Ahold Delhaize stated to Reuters that there was no evidence of a link between these two attacks.