PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Hannaford Bros. Co. said it is spending millions of dollars to enhance the security of its data network following a massive breach that compromised up to 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers.
Company officials announced Tuesday that the new measures include encryption of all card numbers during the entire time they are within the supermarket chain's data network. Hannaford also said it has installed a "24/7-managed security monitoring and detection service" from IBM to detect intrusions.
Hannaford previously blamed unauthorized software that was secretly installed on its servers for the data breach that has been linked to about 1,800 cases of fraud.
Hannaford President and CEO Ron Hodge apologized again Tuesday to customers for concerns and inconvenience they experienced because of the breach and reported that there has been no drop in sales since it was announced five weeks ago.
He called it one of the biggest challenges in the Scarborough-based company's more than 100-year history and said it was pressing ahead with "military and industrial strength" security measures to plug vulnerabilities and prevent future attacks.
In a conference call with reporters, Hodge and Bill Homa, senior vice president and chief information officer, declined to address the cause, scope and nature of the breach, citing the ongoing criminal investigation and pending litigation.
Homa said cyber attacks on retailers are becoming more sophisticated and Hannaford is using the intrusion that occurred between Dec. 7 and March 10 as a learning opportunity that will allow Hannaford to improve its security systems to the point where they surpass the industry standard.
