Kroger suffered a data breach after a service used to transfer files securely was hacked and is notifying potentially impacted customers.
Kroger suffered a data breach after a service used to transfer files securely was hacked and is notifying potentially impacted customers.
Kroger is one of the world’s largest retail companies, with 2,800 stores in 35 states and employing 500,000 people.
Kroger disclosed yesterday that they were affected by a security flaw in the Accellion FTA software that allowed hackers to steal data from companies utilising the service.
According to the data breach advisory, the firm was informed by Accellion of their breach on January 23rd, 2021.
Accellion is a vendor that provides secure third-party data file transfer services. Many companies, educational institutions and government agencies use the Accellion FTA service.
"At this time, based on the information provided by Accellion and our investigation, Kroger believes the categories of affected data may include certain associate’s HR data, certain pharmacy records, and certain money services records."
"Importantly, there was no impact to grocery store data or systems; credit or debit card information; or customer account passwords," explained Kroger in their data breach advisory.
Kroger discontinued the use of Accellion’s services and reported the incident to federal law enforcement. The firm initiated its forensic investigation to review the potential scope and impact of the incident.
Even though no credit or debit card data were stolen, there is a potential risk of identity theft.
The company says that at this time, it has no indication of fraud or misuse of personal data as a result of this incident.
Kroger reported that they are contacting those affected through postal mail and is offering a free year of credit monitoring to anyone affected.
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