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Stop & Shop, Giant find skimming devices in self-checkouts at six stores

Retailers say no evidence so far of customer data being misused

Russell Redman

May 18, 2020

3 Min Read
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Stop & Shop said it had discovered “shimmer” devices at three stores in New Jersey, one in Connecticut and one in Massachusetts.Stop & Shop

Ahold Delhaize USA’s Stop & Shop and Giant Food supermarket chains have reported potential data breaches at six stores from illegal skimming devices.

Stop & Shop said Friday that “shimmer” devices — a thin device typically positioned between the chip and the chip reader, to capture data from the chip were recently identified as part of routine security scans at three stores in New Jersey, one in Connecticut and one in Massachusetts.  Earlier in the week, on May 12, Landover, Md.-based Giant said it discovered a skimming device at a store in Washington, D.C.

Shimmers were found at one self-checkout lane in each of the six stores, according to Stop & Shop and Giant. All of the devices have been removed, and both chains have notified law enforcement and enlisted the services of third-party forensic investigators to determine if any data had been captured.

Both retailers said there’s no evidence that transactional or customer data has been misused, and they have reviewed video surveillance to help determine how long the devices had been in place.

“We take our obligation to safeguard our customers’ personal information very seriously, and we are very sorry this may have impacted them,” Dean Wilkinson, senior vice president of operations at Stop & Shop, said in a statement. “We have taken immediate steps to increase monitoring across all registers at all stores, we’ve deployed device detection tools, and we will continue to be as vigilant as possible in order to protect our customers’ data.”

Related:Hy-Vee says malware caused payment card data breach

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Giant, along with Stop & Shop, said they’ve notified customers of the incidents and urged them to check their payment card and financial account statements for unusual activity.

Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop said customers shopping during certain periods between early February and late April may have been affected at the following stores: 404 Springfield Ave. in Berkeley Heights, N.J., from Feb. 8 to 10; 8 Franklin St. in Bloomfield, N.J., from March 28 to April 9; 1189 Broad St. in Clifton, N.J., from March 14 to April 16; 25 Old King’s Hwy. North in Darien, Conn., from April 26 to 30; 19 Temple St. in Framingham, Mass., from April 22 to 26.

Both retailers noted that they haven’t found any other skimming devices after inspecting PIN pads across all of their stores. Giant said it located the shimmer on March 5 at a self-checkout station in its store at 1345 Park Rd. NW in the District of Columbia.

“The device was installed on only one PIN pad in the store, and forensic investigation concluded that it was capable of capturing data from payment card EMV chips but not from magnetic stripes,” Giant stated. “The personal information found on the device included names, payment account numbers, and expiration dates for a limited number of customers who used that particular self-checkout terminal for a limited time period before March 5. The device was designed such that extraction of the captured payment card transaction data would require manual insertion of a reader device into the card capture device, but the data could not be accessed remotely. We have been unable to determine if any data was extracted from the device, but it is possible that data was extracted before the skimmer was discovered by Giant Food.”

Related:Kings boosts its cybersecurity defense

Stop & Shop and Giant said they’ve notified customers of the incidents and urged them to check their payment card and financial account statements for unusual activity. Concerned shoppers, they added, also can get a free credit report at annualcreditreport.com.

Stop & Shop operates more than 400 stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey, while Giant’s store base encompasses 163 locations in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and D.C.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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