Kroger pharmacy customers personal information possibly compromised due to data breach
ATLANTA - Grocery chain giant, Kroger, announced this week that pharmacy and health clinic customers may have had their personal information stolen during a data security breach last month.
The incident involved third party vendor, Accellion, a software company that was providing services for secure file transfers. Kroger officials say they discontinued those services when they found about the breach on January 23rd.
"Anytime there is an opportunity for someone to take something, they’ll take it," said customer Danny Tarpley.
Kroger officials say none of their grocery store data or credit card systems were impacted, only pharmacy and money service records.
"It’s very scary to think," said customer Robert Avila. "Kroger is such a big brand and for your personal information to be out there because of a data breach."
Officials say an unauthorized person gained access to the files by exploiting a vulnerability in the file transfer service. This comes just two months after Kroger Pharmacies became one of the first distributors of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"If I were a bad person and wanted the biggest bang for my buck, it makes more sense to attack the company connected to the companies" said security expert Keyann Williams of Cyber Leadership and Strategy Solutions.
Experts say hackers could potentially try to disrupt the vaccine distribution process by targeting third party vendors, however Williams does not believe that was the motive in this particular case.
"Personal information still has a lot of value," said Williams.
Regardless, it’s an unsettling reality for some customers.
"It’s a lot because now you don’t know what to do or what to expect," said Avila.
For more information about the data breach, contact the dedicated call center at 1(855) 558-2999 or click here.
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