PORTLAND, Maine — Just days after a nearly two-week stretch of technical challenges that impacted online services at Hannaford Supermarkets largely returned to normal, the company confirmed Saturday it was again experiencing similar problems.
A spokesperson with Hannaford said the company was having technical issues with its website and app and that customers may temporarily experience "performance issues" with these services.
"We're working to resolve any issues as quickly as possible," the spokesperson said. "We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate our customers' continued patience and understanding."
It was not made clear whether this issue was a continuation of the previous technical problems or whether it was a new incident, and the specifics of the disruptions were not released.
The spokesperson also shared that stores and pharmacies were open and serving customers.
On Nov. 7, the company shared that a network cybersecurity issue had impacted its website, pharmacies, and payment methods at several stores. At one point, some pharmacies were unable to accept phone calls. Hannaford at the time advised customers to visit other pharmacies to fill their prescriptions.
After being offline for 12 days, the company confirmed on Nov. 18 that its website and To Go ordering system had returned to normal operations. Officials still didn't go into detail about the cause of the outage or whether a potential data breach occurred.
While there was no indication from the company that personal data was at risk amid the network issues, some customers interviewed about the issue reported feeling uneasy, particularly those who saved credit card and personal information in the Hannaford app.
Dr. Lori Sussman, a cybersecurity expert and professor, said these concerns are valid.
“If somebody has your name, your address, your phone number, they can do some damage with that little amount of identity information,” Dr. Sussman explained.
She advised customers to act quickly in the wake of a potential data breach:
- Delete saved personal or payment information from the company’s accounts
- Order a replacement credit or debit card if payment information was stored
- Avoid saving sensitive data on websites or apps to minimize risk
“It may be a hassle, but at the same time, it may save you thousands of dollars,” Sussman said.
The company did not respond to questions whether the technical issues impacting services on Saturday were related in any way to the recent problems.
NEWS CENTER Maine has reached out to Hannaford for further details about incident. This story may be updated as information becomes available.
