A prominent Canadian grocery chain has informed participants in its loyalty program that their personal details were compromised in a cyber breach. Save-On-Foods, a Western Canadian supermarket, detected unauthorized activity on one of its servers on October 13, promptly isolating the issue and launching an investigation with cybersecurity experts. An email was subsequently dispatched to More Rewards customers notifying them of the incident.
The message highlighted that accessed information may have included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and dates of birth of the affected customers. While the exact number of impacted individuals was not disclosed by Save-On-Foods, the Pattison Food Group, the chain’s parent company, stated on its website that the More Rewards program boasts over 3.5 million members.
Although the breach did not compromise credit card data or passwords, experts caution that cybercriminals could exploit personal information for phishing attacks. Richard Frank, director of Simon Fraser University’s international cybercrime center, emphasized that cyber attackers often leverage personal details to craft convincing scams, potentially leading to identity theft or financial fraud.
In response to the breach, some Reddit users expressed concerns about the security implications of loyalty programs that store personal data. Customers who experienced issues with password resets following the breach were frustrated, highlighting potential vulnerabilities in the system. Save-On-Foods advised More Rewards members to remain cautious of suspicious communications and assured that they would not request sensitive information like passwords or banking details.
Save-On-Foods confirmed that relevant authorities and privacy regulators were notified of the breach. Despite efforts to address the situation, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C. did not respond to inquiries from CBC News regarding the incident.