UNFI Cyber Attack Disrupts Supply Chain, Strips Whole Foods of Stock

As reported by bloomberg, United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI), the grocery distributor for amazon’s Whole Foods Market, is striving to restore its systems by June 15 following a cyberattack that left many store shelves empty of essentials like ice cream and bread.

The company based in providence,R.I., halted its IT operations and restricted shipping after discovering on June 5 that hackers had infiltrated their network. CEO Sandy Douglas shared this update during an earnings call on June 10. He mentioned that UNFI is collaborating with clients to find temporary solutions while they work towards full operational recovery.

The FBI has been notified about the breach, according to Douglas. Fortunately,payroll processes are expected to remain unaffected as per sources familiar with the situation who requested anonymity.

UNFI holds the No. 14 spot on Transport Topics’ Top 100 list of North America’s largest private carriers and ranks first among grocery distributors.

A dialog sent out to customers on June 9 indicated that UNFI aims to resume normal operations by mid-June or sooner and expressed regret over any inconvenience caused during this period.

“We believe we are managing the incident capably with a very strong team of inside and outside professionals,” Douglas stated during the call. “We will keep our customers updated regularly.”

A forklift operator at UNFI shared anonymously that they were sent home due to the cyber incident on June 6 as management couldn’t reach staff amid system failures. Some workers returned on June 8 but had to revert back to manual methods using pen and paper for shipment preparations until normalcy returns.

The National Co+op Grocers organization has reached out with special requests for top-selling items from UNFI amidst these challenges as seen in internal communications reviewed by Bloomberg News.

“While this isn’t ideal, its currently our best option for resuming shipments from UNFI,” read a message dated June 8.

No further comments have been provided from either UNFI or National Co+op Grocers regarding this situation.

A visit made by a Bloomberg reporter revealed empty shelves where ice cream and yogurt typically sit at a Whole Foods location in Manhattan as of June 9; employees declined comment but confirmed efforts were underway to restock quickly according to company representatives.

The unusual network activity was first detected by UNFI on June 5; it escalated quickly leading up to an entire shutdown of their systems within just over twenty-four hours due to escalating concerns about security breaches affecting all business functions including ordering and shipping processes nationwide as noted in communications from National Co+op Grocers.

This attack highlights vulnerabilities within U.S critical infrastructure systems according Andrew Howell from SentinelOne Inc., emphasizing how reliant grocery supply chains are upon technology which can be easily disrupted.

“The American economy’s ability for just-in-time delivery across vast distances is remarkable,” Howell remarked. “However incidents like these reveal how fragile such systems can be.”

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Cameron Fozi, margi Murphy, and jake Bleiberg contributed additional insights into this report.