Food‑chain Giant Food Lion and Ahold Delhaize Restore Online Services After Cybersecurity Outage A global food‑retail groUp and its U.S. subsidiary experienced a multi‑brand cyber incident that shut down websites and apps for over a week. the companies announced the restoration of services, cooperation with authorities, and a plan to refund affected orders. Outage Impact and Initial Response In mid‑October a cyber incident disrupted the online platforms of several major grocery brands, including Food Lion and the European‑based Ahold Delhaize group. The disruption began on Sunday, 11 October when Food Lions website and mobile application went offline. customers reported that the site was "down for nine days," a duration that paralleled the outage experienced by Ahold Delhaizes e‑commerce sites across Europe and the United States. Both companies confirmed that the shutdown was a precautionary measure taken after the detection of suspicious activity within their information technology infrastructure. Ahold Delhaize said that it had engaged cybersecurity experts and notified the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre within 24 hours of discovering the threat. food Lion's spokesperson attributed the outage to a network‑level concern that was ultimately identified as a malicious intrusion. Restoration of Services and Customer Support By Tuesday, 12 October, Food Lion announced thAt its website and app were back online. The retailer also announced a policy of refunding all orders placed through its digital channels that were affected by the nine‑morning downtime. Customers who had previously activated Shop & Earn rewards before 11 October were assured that they could continue to earn and spend rewards normally, with no impact on their loyalty balances. Ahold Delhaize reported similar progress. Its flagship European brand, Albert Heijn, reopened its site and app the morning before the national holiday, allowing home deliveries to resume from Friday, 23 October. Other brands such as Etos and Gall & Gall also returned to service. In the United States, the business confirmed that e‑commerce services for its brands would be available in the coming days, while all physical stores remained open throughout the incident to hold serving customers. Investigation, Cooperation, and Data Security The investigation into the breach is ongoing, and both companies have stated that they are not sharing further technical details to avoid compromising security or investigative efforts. Neither Food Lion nor Ahold Delhaize have reported any evidence that customer,employee,or partner data were accessed or exfiltrated during the incident. The companies emphasized that protecting their infrastructure remains a top priority and that they are fully cooperating with law enforcement and regulatory bodies, including the filing of a formal police report by Ahold Delhaize with the Dutch police. Future Measures and Customer Assurance In its public statements, Ahold Delhaize's President and CEO, Frans Muller, acknowledged that taking systems offline was a necessary precaution to safeguard customers and partners. He reiterated the company's commitment to restoring services as swiftly as possible and to maintaining the operational integrity of its physical stores. Food Lion likewise pledged to enhance its network resilience and to provide transparent updates to its customers regarding any future disruptions.