Ahold Delhaize said on October 19 that it has restored several of its brands’ websites and apps after taking systems offline following the cybersecurity incident it disclosed on October 12, and that it has filed a police report with the Dutch police.

In an update on its newsroom, the company says it detected suspicious activity in its IT infrastructure and engaged cybersecurity experts, and that the investigation confirmed the activity resulted from the malicious actions of others. It took certain systems offline as a precaution, including its brands’ websites and apps, which affected most of its brands across Europe and the United States. Stores stayed open throughout. The company says it notified the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre within 24 hours of discovering the activity.

On restoration, the company reports that Albert Heijn’s website and app are back online with home deliveries expected to resume from Friday, October 23. The Etos and Gall & Gall websites are available, e-commerce in Belgium is fully operational, and e-commerce at its Ahold Delhaize USA brands is expected back in the coming days. It adds that it has no evidence at this moment that suggests any sensitive customer, associate or partner data was taken, and that the investigation is ongoing.

Chief executive Frans Muller said in the statement that “Taking systems offline to help protect them was a precautionary measure that affected most of our brands across Europe and the United States.”

The incident shows a containment choice with a visible price: the stores kept trading while the digital channels stayed offline. Security leaders can ask which customer-facing systems they could isolate on a decision made within hours, and which the business could live without for a week. The answer belongs in the incident plan before the call has to be made. The ConnectWise suspension of its cloud backup service and the BAE Systems incident affecting federal bankruptcy notices are two more recent cases where a service went offline.

Source: Ahold Delhaize, update on status of cybersecurity incident