The company that owns Shaw’s and other grocery stores nationwide recently learned of an unlawful intrusion to obtain credit and debit card payment information in some of its stores.

The appropriate federal law enforcement authorities have been notified, and parent company AB Acquisition reported it is working closely with its third party IT services provider, SUPERVALU, to better understand the nature and scope of the incident. Third-party data forensics experts are supporting an ongoing investigation.

AB Acquisition has not determined that any cardholder data was in fact stolen, and currently it has no evidence of any misuse of any such data.

AB Acquisition believes that the intrusion has been contained and is confident that its customers can safely use their credit and debit cards in its stores.

Based on the latest information from the ongoing investigation, it appears that the period of unauthorized access may have started on June 22, 2014 (at the earliest) and ended on July 17, 2014 (at the latest).

Shaw’s and Star Markets stores in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island were all impacted by this incident.

“We know our customers are concerned about the security of their payment card data, and we work hard to protect it,” said Mark Bates, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at AB Acquisition LLC. “As soon as we were notified of the incident, we began working closely with SUPERVALU to determine what happened. It’s important to note that there is no evidence at this point that consumer data has been misused.

“We understand the inconvenience and concern an incident like this can cause, and we deeply regret that our customers’ data was targeted. ”

Given the continuing nature of the investigation, it is possible that time frames, locations and/or at risk data in addition to that described above will be identified in the future.

Although it has not yet been determined whether any cardholder data was in fact stolen, and there is no evidence to date of any misuse of such data, AB Acquisition LLC is offering customers whose payment cards may have been affected 12 months of complimentary consumer identity protection services through AllClear ID.

Customers may visit the website listed above for further information about the incident and about complimentary consumer identity protection services being offered, or call AllClear ID at 1-855-865-4449 beginning at 4 p.m. ET) on August 20, 2014.

A free copy of your credit report can also be obtained from each of the credit bureaus once a year by going to www.annualcreditreport.com or calling 877-322-8228.  Hearing impaired consumers can access TDD services at 877-730-4104.

Filing a police report

If you do find suspicious activity on the credit or debit card indicated in our notice to you or in your credit report, call your local police or sheriff’s office and file a police report of identity theft.  Get a copy of the police report.  You may need to give copies of the police report to creditors to clear up your records.  In addition, you should report identity theft to your Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission.