Sysco, a global leader in food retail, has confirmed that its network was hacked earlier this year by attackers who stole sensitive information including business, customer and employee data.

In an internal memo sent to employees on May 3 and seen by BleepingComputer, the company disclosed that customer and supplier data in the United States and Canada, as well as personal information belonging to American employees, may have been affected by the incident.

“On March 5, 2023, Sysco became aware of a cybersecurity event perpetrated by a threat actor that allegedly began on January 14, 2023, during which the threat actor gained unauthorized access to our systems and claimed to have acquired certain data,” Sysco added data breach notification letters sent to some of the affected individuals.

Sysco also confirmed the security flaw in a 10-Q Quarterly Report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a week ago, May 2.

“The investigation determined that the threat actor extracted certain company data, including data related to business operations, customers, employees and personal data,” the company said.

“The investigation is ongoing and Sysco has begun the process of preparing to comply with its obligations regarding the extracted data.”

The company believes the employee data stolen from its systems in the breach is a combination of the following: personal information provided to Sysco for payroll purposes, including name, social security number, phone numbers, account or similar information.

Sysco also hired a cybersecurity firm to help investigate the incident and notified federal law enforcement of the cyberattack.

Sysco: no impact on customer service and business operations

The incident did not impact its business operations and customer service was not interrupted, according to 10-Q SEC filing.

Sysco also advised those affected that there is no ongoing threat to its network and that its security team has implemented additional safeguards to prevent a similar breach from happening in the future. .

With more than 71,000 employees, Sysco operates 333 distribution facilities worldwide and serves approximately 700,000 customer locations, including restaurants, healthcare facilities and educational institutions.

According to its website, Sysco generated more than $68 billion in sales for fiscal year 2022, which ended July 2, 2022.

A Sysco spokesperson was unavailable for comment when contacted by BleepingComputer earlier today.