Latest news with #RhodeIsland-based
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
David Hogg, AFL-CIO leaders lobby for competing versions of R.I. ban on assault-style weapons
Advertisement Hogg, who was Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 'Safety in our communities will only come with both,' he said, 'and as Democrats, we should accept nothing less.' Hogg Advertisement Hogg's statement came from the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence, which is lobbying for the House bill and emphasizing that it is the only Rhode Island-based gun safety advocacy group. The The Senate version is backed by the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, which includes the National Education Association Rhode Island, whose leader is Senate President Valarie J. Lawson. Rhode Island AFL-CIO President Patrick Crowley and Secretary-Treasurer Karen Hazard, issued a statement on Thursday, saying they 'stand in full support of' the Senate bill and 'applaud the Rhode Island state Senate for moving forward with this important piece of legislation.' They noted that when the AFL-CIO conducted 'The bill under consideration accomplishes that goal,' Crowley and Hazard said. 'We urge full passage of the bill by the state Senate and respectfully ask the House of Representatives to take up the measure as soon as possible.' The Senate version of the bill is at Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cyberattack leads to Whole Foods shortages
A cyberattack on a primary organic food distributor has led to empty shelves at Whole Foods stores across the country. The company, Rhode Island-based United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI), is one of the country's largest organic food distributors and a major partner with Whole Foods. It became aware of a cyberattack on June 5, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and took some of its systems offline, hampering its ability to distribute orders to customers. A spokesperson for United Natural Foods declined to share specifics about the cyberattack, saying it was an ongoing operation. But it comes in the wake of a series of cyberattacks where a notorious cybercriminal gang has been targeting major retail customers with ransomware, rendering key systems inoperable as hackers demand payment. A corporate Whole Foods spokesperson apologized for the inconvenience and said the company is working to restock shelves quickly, but declined to answer specific questions. Two Whole Foods employees, who were not authorized by the company to speak with the press about the incident, told NBC News that the shortages were significant. 'It's affecting operations in a very, very significant way,' an employee at a Sacramento Whole Foods said. 'Shelves don't even have products in some places. The shipments we receive are not what we need, or we did need it but it's too much of one product because UNFI can't communicate with stores to get proper orders.' A Whole Foods employee in North Carolina said: 'We had to shut down our sandwich station on Tuesday because we didn't get any bread delivered. My store almost ran out of trash bags the other day.' The UNFI spokesperson said there was not a clear timeline for when distribution would return to normal, but that on Thursday it had begun gradually bringing some systems back online. John Braley, the director of the Food and Agriculture-Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a nonprofit cybersecurity advisory nonprofit for the food and agriculture industry, said the food supply chain's complexity means that if a company is suddenly hampered by a cyberattack, it can cause trickle-down effects that keep food from reaching customers. 'For a standard, moderately processed food product found in a major supermarket, 10 or more companies can be involved in the supply chain. Even fresh produce — such as an apple sold at a farmers' market — may involve multiple companies, such as the farm itself, local distributor/food hub, and the retailer,' he said in an emailed statement to NBC News. Beyond Whole Foods, smaller companies have also faced shortages from UNFI being unable to automatically process orders. The Community Food Co-Op in Bellingham, Washington, told customers on Facebook Monday that, as UNFI is its primary distributor, 'you'll see sparsely stocked shelves in some of our aisles' and asked customers to limit purchases to two of each item. Caitlin Smith, a logistics coordinator at C.R. England, a trucking and logistics company, told NBC News that the UNFI outage has left her company unable to deliver refrigerated foods to a dairy processing customer. 'I have three drivers sitting stuck because of this whole UNFI debacle,' she said. The costs from the cyberattack will end up being passed onto the consumer, she said. 'At the end of the day, you and I as customers will end up paying for this. So it does have a domino effect.' Ransomware attacks are common. But a particularly vicious campaign has hit major retailers in recent months. At least three major British retailers were hit earlier this year, including Marks & Spencer, which had to pause online orders for weeks; the Co-op, which saw hackers leak significant customer data to the BBC; and Harrods, which had to restrict some internet access at stores. Google said last month that those attacks overlap with a loosely affiliated group the cybersecurity industry has dubbed 'Scattered Spider,' largely English-speaking young men who have mastered the ability to trick people into giving them restricted online access. The same group was accused of breaking into Las Vegas casino companies in 2023. It has begun targeting major American retailers in earnest, Google said. Victoria's Secret was also the victim of a cyberattack in May, though it's not clear if the same group was responsible. This article was originally published on
NBC News
12-06-2025
- Business
- NBC News
Cyberattack leads to Whole Foods shortages
A cyberattack on a primary organic food distributor has led to empty shelves at Whole Foods stores across the country. The company, Rhode Island-based United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI), is one of the country's largest organic food distributors and a major partner with Whole Foods. It became aware of a cyberattack on June 5, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and took some of its systems offline, hampering its ability to distribute orders to customers. A spokesperson for United Natural Foods declined to share specifics about the cyberattack, saying it was an ongoing operation. But it comes in the wake of a series of cyberattacks where a notorious cybercriminal gang has been targeting major retail customers with ransomware, rendering key systems inoperable as hackers demand payment. A corporate Whole Foods spokesperson apologized for the inconvenience and said the company is working to restock shelves quickly, but declined to answer specific questions. Two Whole Foods employees, who were not authorized by the company to speak with the press about the incident, told NBC News that the shortages were significant. 'It's affecting operations in a very, very significant way,' an employee at a Sacramento Whole Foods said. 'Shelves don't even have products in some places. The shipments we receive are not what we need, or we did need it but it's too much of one product because UNFI can't communicate with stores to get proper orders.' A Whole Foods employee in North Carolina said: 'We had to shut down our sandwich station on Tuesday because we didn't get any bread delivered. My store almost ran out of trash bags the other day.' The UNFI spokesperson said there was not a clear timeline for when distribution would return to normal, but that on Thursday it had begun gradually bringing some systems back online. John Braley, the director of the Food and Agriculture-Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a nonprofit cybersecurity advisory nonprofit for the food and agriculture industry, said the food supply chain's complexity means that if a company is suddenly hampered by a cyberattack, it can cause trickle-down effects that keep food from reaching customers. 'For a standard, moderately processed food product found in a major supermarket, 10 or more companies can be involved in the supply chain. Even fresh produce — such as an apple sold at a farmers' market — may involve multiple companies, such as the farm itself, local distributor/food hub, and the retailer,' he said in an emailed statement to NBC News. Beyond Whole Foods, smaller companies have also faced shortages from UNFI being unable to automatically process orders. The Community Food Co-Op in Bellingham, Washington, told customers on Facebook Monday that, as UNFI is its primary distributor, 'you'll see sparsely stocked shelves in some of our aisles' and asked customers to limit purchases to two of each item. Caitlin Smith, a logistics coordinator at C.R. England, a trucking and logistics company, told NBC News that the UNFI outage has left her company unable to deliver refrigerated foods to a dairy processing customer. 'I have three drivers sitting stuck because of this whole UNFI debacle,' she said. The costs from the cyberattack will end up being passed onto the consumer, she said. 'At the end of the day, you and I as customers will end up paying for this. So it does have a domino effect.' Ransomware attacks are common. But a particularly vicious campaign has hit major retailers in recent months. At least three major British retailers were hit earlier this year, including Marks & Spencer, which had to pause online orders for weeks; the Co-op, which saw hackers leak significant customer data to the BBC; and Harrods, which had to restrict some internet access at stores. Google said last month that those attacks overlap with a loosely affiliated group the cybersecurity industry has dubbed 'Scattered Spider,' largely English-speaking young men who have mastered the ability to trick people into giving them restricted online access. The same group was accused of breaking into Las Vegas casino companies in 2023. It has begun targeting major American retailers in earnest, Google said. Victoria's Secret was also the victim of a cyberattack in May, though it's not clear if the same group was responsible.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cyberattack on United Natural Foods to disrupt food supply at grocers in Pittsburgh region, beyond
Attention, Pittsburgh-area organic food shoppers. Look for selection to shrink and for store shelves to at least start to go bare on select items in the wake of a cyberattack on the largest organic food distributor in the United States, Rhode Island-based United Natural Foods Inc. (NYSE: UNFI), Amazon's primary food supplier for Whole Foods Market that counts more than 30,000 grocery stores throughout the country as customers. A spokesperson for Whole Foods told an affiliate publication of the Pittsburgh Business Times that the company is working to restock its shelves 'and apologize(s) for any inconvenience this may have caused customers.' Click here to read more from our partners at the Pittsburgh Business Times. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Seeing a lack of some items on Pierce County grocery shelves? This might be why
If you're seeing scarcity of some items on your local grocery shelves, it might be more than a seasonal disruption. Pierce County and national grocers have reported issues with regional grocery supplier United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) following a cyberattack on UNFI's operations reported in recent days. In response to questions Wednesday, UNFI media representative Kristen Jimenez shared the company's latest statement with The News Tribune. According to the statement, the distributor is 'gradually bringing our ordering and receiving capabilities back online, with the goal of further increasing our capacity over the coming days.' 'We continue working steadily to safely restore our systems and provide the services our customers and suppliers know and expect from us,' the company stated. 'The investigation is ongoing with the support of leading forensics experts.' It added, 'Our customers, suppliers, and associates are our highest priority. We continue to work closely with them to minimize disruptions as much as possible.' One Pierce County grocer told The News Tribune his store had resorted to submitting a recent order 'the old-fashioned way,' written down and called in. Similar accounts were reported elsewhere Wednesday by Supermarket News. The Wall Street Journal reported systems were anticipated to be fully restored by Sunday, based on a notice to suppliers viewed by the newspaper. Providence, Rhode Island-based UNFI is one of the largest suppliers for grocery entities nationwide, including Whole Foods Market, other major chains and various co-ops and independent grocery stores. In a statement June 9, UNFI said that it had 'identified unauthorized activity in our systems and have proactively taken some systems offline while we investigate.' On Wednesday, TechCrunch reported that Whole Foods told its employees in internal communications that the supply disruptions 'may take several days to resolve,' and included instructions to limit communications with customers. A Whole Foods media representative said the company was working to restock its shelves 'as quickly as possible.' PCC Community Markets in Seattle also reported impacts on social media, 'which may temporarily lead to some delivery delays and limited product selection. All our stores are open, and our produce, meat, and deli departments remain well-stocked.' Tyler Myers is president of The Myers Group, which owns various IGA grocery stores in Washington, Oregon and Alaska, including Key Center IGA in the Key Peninsula. In response to questions, Myers told The News Tribune that even though the store is supplied by UNFI, 'The UNFI issue only impacts a few departments within our store. We have multiple vendors that service our store. For example, this temporary UNFI supply problem does not affect our produce or meat departments.' He added that 'It is our understanding that UNFI will be shipping product to us as early as next week. We have already begun to arrange for a new supplier if UNFI continues to have problems meeting our orders.'
