Malware cited in supermarket data breach

PORTLAND, Maine -- Unauthorized software that was secretly installed on servers in Hannaford Bros supermarkets across the Northeast and in Florida enabled the massive data breach that compromised up to 4.2 million credit and debit cards, the company said Friday.

The Scarborough, Maine-based grocer confirmed a report in The Boston Globe that it told Massachusetts regulators this week about the link between the breach and the illicit programs, known as "malware."

The company doesn't know how the malware — short for malicious software — got onto nearly all its 271 stores' servers, Hannaford spokeswoman Carol Eleazer said.

At least 1,800 cases of fraud have been linked to the data breach, with unauthorized charges showing up as far afield as Mexico, Italy and Bulgaria.

The breach has prompted concern in the industry because it appeared to be the first large-scale theft of credit and debit card numbers while the information was in transit.

The usual mode of attack targets data sitting in databases, as in the record-setting theft of information from Massachusetts-based TJX Cos. involving least 45 million cards.

"Virtually everything is possible," Eleazer said. "There are still many, many aspects that we don't totally understand."

The company has said that the breach, which occurred between Dec. 7 and March 10, allowed credit and debit card numbers to be stolen as shoppers swiped their cards at checkout line machines and the information was transmitted to banks for approval.

The malware turned up in all Hannaford stores in New England and New York, and in most of the company's affiliated Sweetbay stores in Florida, Eleazer said.

The finding was revealed in a letter from Hannaford general counsel Emily Dickinson to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Gov. Deval Patrick's Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation.

Eleazer declined to release a copy.

The involvement of the software had not been previously disclosed "because of the confidential nature of the investigation," Eleazer said. The breach remains under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service.