The grocery chain Supervalu said Friday that it may have suffered a data breach at stores in as many as five states.
Hackers accessed a network that processes store transactions. Account numbers, expiration dates, cardholders’ names and other information may have been stolen, the company said.
Grocery stores — as well as some stand-alone liquor shops — in Minnesota, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland and Missouri may have been affected between June 22 and July 17.
The cards from which data may have been stolen were used at 180 Supervalu stores and liquor stores run under the Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Shop ‘n Save and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy names. Data may also have been stolen from 29 franchised Cub Foods stores and liquor stores.
Once it learned of the breach, the company said that it took immediate steps to secure that portion of its network. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.
The company hasn’t determined if any cardholder data was actually stolen and said Friday that there’s no evidence of the data being misused.
The release of information about the breach was released out of “an abundance of caution,” the company said.
The intrusion at Supervalu is just the latest in a string of data breaches at major retailers.
Earlier this month, Target said that expenses tied to a breach leading up to last year’s holiday shopping season could reach as high as $148 million. The incident led to a major shakeup and CEO Gregg Steinhafel resigned.
Restaurant operator P.F. Chang’s confirmed in June that data from credit and debit cards used at its restaurants was stolen.
There have been smaller breaches at Neiman Marcus and Michaels Stores Inc., and even at Goodwill.