Reported by The Guardian
Chains in at least seven countries say fridge temperatures rose overnight in incident similar to hack of French stores
Supermarket chains in at least seven European countries have said the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers in dozens of their stores soared overnight, prompting fears of a cyber-attack similar to one that caused millions of euros of losses in France.
Retailers in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg , the Netherlands and Sweden reported problems with their refrigeration systems on Monday, and several companies confirmed they had been victims of a cyberattack.
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The incidents follow an attack in France last month in which hackers seized control of the cooling units in as many as 700 supermarkets, raising their temperatures as high as 50C (122F) and causing fires and food losses estimated in the tens of millions of euros.
A growing range of devices, including refrigeration systems, can now be monitored and controlled remotely, leading authorities to particularly fear government-sponsored hybrid attacks in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Sweden’s Coop chain told the daily Aftonbladet that six of its stores had been hit, while ICA said it was “aware that a limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems”.
An ICA store at Sjöbo in southern Sweden posted that its fridges and freezers had been hacked and their temperature set at 50C. Another in Stockholm said its freezers were broken “due to a 2am cyberattack” and that “everything was destroyed.”
The head of the national cybersecurity centre, John Billow, said it was working on incidents around Sweden. It had established the country had “quite a lot of exposed operational technology devices” that needed updating or patching, he told Reuters.
The Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize, which last month reported a similar incident to police in the Netherlands, said fridges and freezers in dozens of its supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg had been hit.
It did not specify the cause, but reporters visiting a store north-east of Brussels saw refrigerators and freezers empty and a sign reading: “Due to cyberattacks, there will be…