The Ahold Dehaize Breach and the Future of Personal Data
In a June 2025 filing, Ahold Delhaize one of the biggest food retailers in the world, doing most of its business in Europe, Indonesia, and the United States had a filing with Maine's attorney general where it was revealed that 2,242,521 individuals had their data compromised in a Novermber 2024 data breach. The company isn't clear on exactly what kind of data was stolen, but with a base of 60 million customers per week, this breach requires to be brought some attention and all affected customers should really change their passwords.
In the past year alone, cyberattacks have hit airlines, hospitals, schools, and now grocery chains. And more often than not, it’s not just customer data being targeted. It’s employee data, that can be exploited for more sophisticated insider attack.
Employer systems tend to store the most complete picture of a person’s identity including government ID numbers, bank accounts for payroll, health records for insurance, employment history, and even information about dependents.
What to do if your data is exposed
Whether or not this particular breach affects you, these are actions worth taking:
Change your passwords, especially if you reuse them.
Monitor your bank and benefits accounts for any unusual activity.
Freeze your credit with the three major credit bureaus if you notice anomalies in your statements.
Be skeptical of emails and messages asking for personal information
Although Ahold Delhaize is offering identity protection services to affected individuals. If you are one of them, it’s worth using the tools provided by them in addition to the protective steps we recommend.
Looking ahead
Breaches like this are starting to reveal a new reality. We have been protecting the wrong kinds of data.
We lock down payment systems, and that matters. But in a world where identity theft is more profitable than credit card theft, attackers are going after the larger target: your personal infrastructure.
And that shifts the conversation beyond IT departments or compliance teams. It’s about how each of us manages our data footprint, who has access to it, how it’s stored, and how quickly we can act when something breaks.
One final thought
There’s a lot we can’t control. But how we respond, how we adapt, and what we learn about the state of our digital footprint is always up to us. Data breaches are no longer rare events. But normalizing them doesn’t mean ignoring them.
Read more about the breach here - https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/massive-ahold-delhaize-data-breach-sees-2-2-million-peoples-data-exposed-in-ransomware-attacks-against-major-u-s-food-retailer/
Thanks to Victor Chikezie for editing this newsletter.