Consumer Alert!

Looks like I, along with many others, was potentially part of a huge security breach at Hannaford Supermarkets. According to media reports (including this one in the New York Times):

The Hannaford Brothers supermarket chain announced a security breach that began Dec. 7 and led to thefts of customer credit and debit card numbers from more than 200 stores. Hannaford says the security breach affects all of its 165 stores in the Northeast, 106 Sweetbay stores in Florida and a smaller number of independent groceries. The company estimates that 4.2. million credit and debit card numbers were potentially exposed, and that there have been about 1,800 cases of reported fraud related to the breach, said Carol Eleazer, Hannaford’s vice president of marketing in Scarborough. The company says card numbers were stolen in the authorization transmission process.

This might explain why my debit card wasn't working for the past several days (and I thought it was due to just a little ol' lack of funds). The truth was that my card was used and the pin was incorrectly entered. It seems that nothing was stolen (not that there's much to steal - HAH!). Anyway, I'm back in business and to show you what a loyal customer I am, I went to Hannaford last night for some sliced corned beef ('twas St. Patty's Day, after all).

This is obviously a serious matter, to be sure, so if you think you might have been affected, this link will take you to a statement from Hannaford's CEO.

Again, I have faith in Hannaford, so they can keep my business, but this serves to remind us all how vigilant we have to be on so many things.