CHICAGO, July 31, 2026 — A notorious online extortion group says it has swiped personal information about Sysco customers and employees by hacking into 61 million files maintained via the popular Salesforce customer relations management platform.
The criminal group, Shinyhunters, threatened to release the data if Sysco didn’t reach out to negotiate a ransom payment within two days. A copy of the warning, originally aired on the hackers’ dark-web site, has been posted on Cybernews, a website that reports on cybersecurity.
The given deadline of June 18 passed about five weeks ago. It is not clear if Shinyhunters made good on its threat.
Sysco said in a letter to those whose information might have been compromised that it detected unauthorized online activity in late April and began an investigation. On May 5, it confirmed that “Sysco’s environment” had been hacked. On June 25, it determined that personal information about customers and employees was included in the swiped data.
The distribution giant sent a letter alerting suspected victims to the data theft and spelling out what protections would be provided to prevent their personnel information from being abused. Those defenses included two years’ worth of enrollment in Experian, a well-known identity protection service.
A sample of the letter, dated July 22, was posted on ClaimDepot.com, a website that brings to light legal actions with the potential to become class-action lawsuits.
The website reports that Social Security numbers were included in the data that were taken.
Sysco has not yet responded to a request for additional information.
As Managing Editor for IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, Romeo is responsible for generating the group's news and feature content. He brings more than 40 years of experience in covering restaurants to the position.