Supermarket Freezers Across Seven European Countries Hit by Suspected Cyber-Attack
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Dozens of supermarkets across seven European countries reported suspected cyber-attacks on their refrigeration systems overnight, in what is believed to be the second organised assault of its kind in a month. Around 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, with a smaller number of shops hit in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.
The Belgian manufacturer Sabcobel, which makes some of the affected refrigeration units, said the systems’ evaporators were switched to defrost mode, causing the cabinets to warm up. Investigators believe the method matched that used in last month’s incident that hit hundreds of French supermarkets, the Guardian reported. Chains in the seven countries said cooling unit temperatures rose overnight, leaving staff to salvage stock as thawing goods lined the aisles.
Retail executives estimate the losses from spoiled frozen food in the tens of millions of euros across the two incidents, the International Business Times reported. Store operators restored cooling manually in many locations after the automated controls failed to respond.
No party claimed responsibility, and no government has publicly attributed the attacks. Police in several of the affected countries opened preliminary inquiries into how the intruders reached the refrigeration controllers, which are typically connected to store networks for energy management.
The incident raises questions about the security of connected store equipment. Refrigeration and building-management systems are often linked to the same networks as checkout and inventory software, and are frequently patched less rigorously than corporate systems, a pattern that has drawn warnings from national cyber agencies this year.
Grocery chains said they were reviewing remote-access arrangements with equipment suppliers. Delhaize confirmed the Belgian and Luxembourg figures and said affected stores would return to normal refrigeration in phases. The French incident of last month caused comparable spoilage before its controls were isolated.