A cyberattack on Federated Co-operatives Limited that saw cardlock fuel locations temporarily closed has filtered to grocery locations leaving shelves bare of certain items.
The Western Canada group with 160 co-ops, seven on Vancouver Island, announced in late June it was the victim of a cyber attack affecting some internal operations, storefronts and grocery inventory. It closed all of its 398 cardlock fuel locations, but they’ve since been re-opened.
Peninsula Co-op, based on Keating Cross Road, has a grocery centre, 17 gas stations, 10 liquor stores and three cardlock fuel locations. Lindsay Gaudette, director of marketing and community relations, said on the fuel side the stores are managing quite well but because internal IT systems at Federated Co-operatives have been slowed or paused for cybersecurity safety reasons, it’s affected the ordering process.
That’s made keeping shelves stocked “a little more challenging,” she said. “We’re still getting shipments, just not to the same level.”
Most affected have been dairy items, dried and canned good and frozen foods, she said.
“We’re doing whatever we can to ramp up local produce to fill in those gaps,” she said, adding that effort is going well.
Gaudette said the co-op appreciates customers’ understanding and patience. “We appreciate all of our members and I think we’ve been very fortunate, we haven’t had a lot of complaints which I think speaks to our great customers and the people we have on the Island,” she said.
A threat on July 8 on the dark web said 80 gigabytes of data from Federated Co-operatives would be available soon for downloading, including human resources files with employee data, confidential business files, financials, and client information.
“While it’s possible these allegations are related the to the cybersecurity incident we previously experienced, we are still investigating with the assistance from third-party experts,” the co-op said in a statement.
If that investigation determines that data was compromised, it said it will take appropriate action.
Brad DeLorey, director of communications and public affairs for Federated Co-operatives, said it is providing updates via social media and will not be conducting interviews “until the investigation is complete.”
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