How? Is it all from the Talx acquisition?
If not, that is impressive. For many companies payroll is the most or even only really sensitive information.
Kroger has a large union workforce. It will be interesting to see if their unions make this an issue and force the data handover to stop.
Seriously, Hollywood screenwriters couldn't have come up with a plot this complicated. My favorite part is often overlooked. Earlier this year, they lobbied to remove what few rights we have in case of breaches/losses of PII. As in, they lobbied to not be held accountable or have to give notice in case they were breached. I think that was back in May of this year. There has been so much new information, I can no longer keep track.
If this were a movie, it would suck - because it's too far-fetched and unbelievable. If someone were telling me this story, and I didn't know better, I'd assume they were lying. It has almost reached the point where it is comedic.
My guess is they did something devious, like doing work for a payroll processing company, in order to obtain this information.