Bad newsSuspected Cyberattacks Overheat Supermarket Freezers Across Europe for a Second Time
Overnight into 2 November, refrigeration systems at supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland and Estonia heated up, spoiling food. No one has claimed responsibility, and officials say the culprit may never be identified.
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Supermarket freezers and fridges in at least five European countries overheated overnight into Monday 2 November in what retailers and officials describe as cyberattacks. Al Jazeera lists Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland and Estonia, and NBC News adds the Netherlands. No one has claimed responsibility. It is the second such wave: hackers took control of cooling units at hundreds of French supermarkets in October, with temperatures reaching 122°F (50°C), spoiled food and fires at several stores.
Who was hit
In Sweden, Coop said six of its stores were affected, and ICA said a limited number were hit. At an ICA Kvantum in Sjöbo, fridges were set to 122°F and staff are discarding the goods, NBC reports. Axfood said freezers at its Gothenburg-area home-delivery distribution centre were hacked.
In Ireland, Musgrave said 13 of its 223 SuperValu stores had refrigeration systems affected, forcing some chilled and frozen products off sale. In Belgium, Sabcobel, the refrigeration company that operates Delhaize’s systems, said its units’ evaporators were switched to defrost mode. Belga reported temperature rises at dozens of Ahold Delhaize stores, which the company called an IT incident. Colruyt said five Spar stores were attacked, and Carrefour said 15 of its more than 700 Belgian stores had an extremely limited impact. In Estonia, a manufacturer said one client’s control computer was accessed and set to 122°F.
What nobody knows
The attacks have no named author. A spokesperson for the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium said it may never be able to identify who is behind them. European states have blamed Moscow for infrastructure incidents in recent months, and Russia denies involvement, but neither report links these attacks to any actor.
The weak point may be ordinary. John Billow, head of Sweden’s national cybersecurity centre, said many exposed operational technology devices in Sweden need updating or patching. ICA said its central systems were unaffected and that the stores hit use an external supplier connected outside its central network. European Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen called the attacks a deliberate attempt to disrupt EU food supplies.
The reports do not say how many stores in total were hit, how much food was lost, or whether one vendor’s system links the incidents. Those are the numbers that will show whether this is a nuisance for individual stores or a threat to the cold chain.
