SCARBOROUGH, Maine —Tens of thousands of Mainers have been impacted by a data breach involving the parent company of Hannaford Supermarkets, according to a new filing with the Maine Attorney General’s Office.
Ahold Delhaize, which owns Hannaford and other grocery chains, reported that a total of 2,242,521 individuals nationwide were affected by the breach — including 95,463 Maine residents.
The company says the breach occurred on Nov. 5, 2024, and was discovered the next day. In a public notice, Ahold Delhaize described the breach as an external system breach and confirmed that “an unauthorized third party obtained certain files from one of our internal U.S. file repositories.”
The types of personal information exposed vary by individual, but the compromised data repository included:
- Names
- Contact information (addresses, phone numbers, email)
- Dates of birth
- Government-issued ID numbers (such as Social Security, driver’s license, and passport numbers)
- Financial account details (including bank account numbers)
- Health and workers’ compensation information
- Employment-related records
The company is now offering 24 months of free credit monitoring and identity protection services through Experian to those impacted.
The filing confirms the incident was a far-reaching breach, beyond what Ahold Delhaize had initially described as a “cybersecurity issue.”
When the incident first occurred in November, Hannaford stores remained open, but the company’s website, mobile app, and “To Go” ordering system were all offline for about a week.
Ahold Delhaize had previously released few details about the scale of the breach until this week’s filing.
How to prevent identity theft
- Check your statements & credit report regularly: This is easiest way to detect any suspicious activity early on. You can now check your credit report weekly for FREE.
- Place a fraud alert: This ensures any new or recent credit requests undergo scrutiny. Once you place an alert with any of the three major credit reporting agencies, they will notify the other two. The alert typically lasts for a year.
- Freeze your credit: This is the best protection against an identity thief using your data to open new lines of credit. It’s free to freeze your credit and unfreeze it when you want to open an account. We have details on how to do this below.
How to freeze your credit
Contact each of the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, individually to freeze your credit. It’s free to place a freeze on your report and it can be frozen or unfrozen as many times as you’d like.
- Equifax: Call 800-349-9960 or go online
- Experian: Call 8883973742 or go online
- TransUnion: Call 888-909-8872 or go online
You’ll likely need to create an account and supply your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information to request the freeze, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
If you feel like you’ve become a victim of identity theft, the FTC has an entire website dedicated to helping you report it and recover it.
