United Natural Foods: Problems due to cyberattack

United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI), the leading food distributor in North America, was hit by a serious cyberattack, which forced it to take some of its information systems offline.

The Rhode Island-based company serves more than 30,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada—including supermarkets, e-commerce platforms, physical stores, and foodservice businesses.

In a statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as well as in an official press release, the company revealed that it discovered the breach on Thursday, June 5.As an immediate response, it activated its incident response plan and proactively shut down selected systems, which affected order management and distribution.

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United Natural Foods Inc. admitted that the cyberattack has already caused, and is expected to continue to cause, operational disruptions.

The company has already notified law enforcement and is working with specialized external cybersecurity analysts to investigate the incident in depth. At the same time, it is implementing interim solutions to ensure uninterrupted service to its customersuntil the affected systems are fully restored.

The announcement came a few days after repeated reports on social media, which spoke of outages, cancellations of staff shifts and serious impacts on the company's operational flow.

So far, UNFI has not released details about the type of attack, nor has it confirmed whether the attackers were able to extract any data. No ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the cyber breach.

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Ahead of the scheduled announcement of financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2025—on Wednesday, June 11—the company is trying to reassure customers and partners.

“We are assessing the unauthorized activity and are working diligently to safely restore our systems,” Inès de Miranda, a spokesperson for UNFI, told BleepingComputer. “Supporting our customers, suppliers, and partners is a top priority for us at this time.”

Food companies targeted by cyberattacks

The cyberattack on United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) adds to a growing list of attacks on the food industry, highlighting the shift in cybercriminal activity towards critical supply chains.

Just in March, Sam's Club , a Walmart-owned supermarket chain, said it was investigating a possible ransomware attack by the Clop group. A few years earlier, in 2021, JBS Foods, the world's largest beef producer, was in the spotlight after an attack by the REvilled to an ransom payment . It also temporarily halted production at facilities around the world.

Recently, cybercrime groups such as Scattered Spider and DragonForce have targeted retail giants in the United Kingdom — Harrods, Co-op, and Marks & Spencer— and are now expanding their reach to businesses based in the United States.

The new attack on UNFI confirms that critical infrastructure in the food sector remains vulnerable, with threat actors seeking maximum impact in highly dependent and non-stop sectors. Companies like UNFI, which act as critical links in the food supply chain, are attractive targets for attackers because every hour of downtime has significant consequences — operational, financial and social. Pressure for immediate restoration often leads to negotiations or even ransom payments.

See also: DollyWay World Domination attack hacked over 20,000 sites

If cybersecurity in critical infrastructure, such incidents may have much broader socio-economic impacts, beyond the damages to individual businesses.

Source: www.bleepingcomputer.com