Labour union breach exposed over 55K individuals’ details

United Food & Commercial Workers Local No. 7 (UFCW 7) noticed suspicious activity on its network late last year and has finally revealed what type of detail the attack exposed.

The American labour union, representing workers from Colorado and Wyoming supermarkets, packing houses, food processing plants, cannabis facilities, and other organizations, informed tens of thousands of people of a nearly year-old data breach.

According to UFCW 7, the union discovered suspicious activity on its network on December 11th, 2024. After discovering the unauthorized access to its networks, the union hired third-party cybersecurity experts to assist with dissecting the incident.

“As part of the investigation, we learned that certain data may have been accessed or acquired by an unauthorized actor on December 10, 2024. As a result, we underwent a comprehensive data review to determine what information was involved and to whom that information belonged,” reads the union's data breach notice.

UFCW 7 confirmed that the attack exposed users’ first and last names, together with theior Social Security numbers (SSNs). Information the organization submitted to the Main Attorney General’s Office revealed that over 55,000 people were exposed in the attack.

Since UFCW 7 says it represents around 26,000 individuals, the number of exposed individuals strongly point to past members being also exposed in the data breach.

While having names and SSNs leaked is not the end of the world, attackers can still utilize the details to attempt identity theft. Additionally, the union's members could be more susceptible to phishing attacks.

“We have taken our response to this incident seriously, and we ar·e reviewing and updating our existing security policies and protections ah·eady in place on our network,” UFCW 7 breach notice said.

To assist impacted individuals with the possibly elevated cybersecurity risks, the union said it will offer exposed individuals complimentary access to credit monitoring and identity protection services.

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