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Security experts say the disruption that has crippled Albert Heijn, the Netherlands’ largest supermarket chain since Sunday, is “very likely” the result of a cyberattack. The problem is now spreading into the supply chain, which could lead to empty shelves. The company still refuses to confirm whether it was hacked.
What experts are saying
Albert Heijn and its parent company, Ahold Delhaize, have kept their systems turned off since Sunday afternoon and only call the problem a “cybersecurity incident.” However, outside experts are becoming more certain about what happened. “An organisation that big doesn’t take measures like this lightly,” cybersecurity specialist Joey Fennis told broadcaster NOS. Pim Takkenberg told the current-affairs programme Nieuwsuur it seemed “fairly clear” that someone malicious had been in the system, noting that “an outage doesn’t usually last this long.”
Takkenberg explained that shutting systems down is a common way to limit damage after an intruder gets into a network. Another expert, Eward Driehuis, suggested a different reason: the company might have found a vulnerability it could not fix quickly and decided to close everything as a precaution. In either case, experts warn that if attackers got in, they may have seen or stolen data. This is the main concern for the roughly five million users of the Albert Heijn app.
When asked directly if the company had been hacked, Chief Executive Margaret Versteden-van Duijn told NOS: “Unfortunately, I can’t say anything about that at the moment.” Albert Heijn says it is still investigating and has not given a date for when services will be restored.
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The threat of empty shelves
The biggest impact for shoppers is now in the supply chain. Albert Heijn has distribution centres across the Netherlands, but the CEO confirmed that work at several of them has stopped because of the incident. This is affecting how shops are restocked. An email to suppliers seen by RTL Z says only the Zaandam centre is still working, and suppliers have been asked to deliver there at set times, although Albert Heijn has not confirmed this.
The chain says that fresh produce, especially fruit and vegetables, will be the hardest to find. Frozen goods, bread, and long-life products should still be available. “Of course shelves will empty if this goes on longer,” Versteden-van Duijn said, adding that the situation will differ from store to store. Physical shops are still open and the tills work, but online ordering and home delivery are still unavailable. Thousands of regular customers reportedly switched to other supermarkets on Monday.
Outside the Netherlands
Since Ahold Delhaize is a multinational company, the disruption is affecting more than just the Netherlands. In Belgium, the group’s Delhaize chain has reported IT problems, and Albert Heijn’s Belgian stores, which get supplies from the Tilburg distribution centre, may run out of some products. In the United States, the websites of all five of Ahold Delhaize’s supermarket chains, including Stop & Shop and Food Lion, were offline on Monday and online ordering was suspended.
The incident happened at the same time as a separate cyberattack on hundreds of supermarkets in France over the same weekend. In that case, hackers remotely made refrigeration systems defrost, which spoiled fresh and frozen food. Albert Heijn’s CEO said she could not say if the two incidents were connected, but an Ahold Delhaize spokesperson later told Reuters there was no reason to think they were related. For now, the advice to shoppers is the same: the shops are open, so bring a physical Bonuskaart, check prices at the till, and keep your receipts.