Major US grocery distributors warn of chaos after cyberattacks
United Natural Foods (UNFI), a leading distributor of food products to Whole Foods and other retailers, said it was hit by a cyber attack on Monday, warning of disruption in its ability to meet and distribute customer orders.
Unfi said Monday application The Securities and Exchange Commission began closing parts of its network last Thursday, noting unauthorized access to IT systems. Filing added that the company “implemented workarounds for certain operations in order to continue serving customers as much as possible,” but said the intrusion caused continued disruption in business operations.
Based in Rhode Island, Providence is one of North America’s largest grocery retailers, selling fresh produce, goods and food to more than 30,000 stores and supermarket locations in the US and Canada.
UNFI works like this Whole Foods’ “Major Distributors”an Amazon-owned grocery chain. Last year, the two companies extended their long-term contracts until May 2032.
When they reached TechCrunch, UNFI spokesman Kristen Jimenez never explained the nature of the cyberattack or said whether the intruder had requested a ransom from the company.
“We are assessing unauthorized activities and working to restore the system and bring it back online and secure,” Jimenez said, adding that the incident has been reported to law enforcement.
A Whole Foods spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.
The incident at UNFI is the latest in a series of cyberattacks affecting the broader retail and grocery supply chains in recent months. Following data breaches at UK retail giants Marks & Spencer and CooperativesGoogle warned that hackers are It also targets US retailersalthough it didn’t name the affected companies.
When asked, UNFI did not say when to expect to recover the system.
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