Cyber-Attacks Hit Supermarket Freezers Across 10 Countries

Brussels (GNP): A wave of cyber-attacks has hit supermarket chains in at least 10 European countries, and European Union (EU) officials have warned of a deliberate attempt to disrupt the food supply chain. The attacks struck on Monday, and no one has yet admitted carrying out any of them.

Stores reported problems in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Sweden. Freezer and refrigerator temperatures rose sharply, reportedly as high as 50 degrees Celsius, and retailers had to throw away food.

The EU has linked the incident to an earlier one. Three weeks ago, a cyber-attack disrupted as many as 700 French grocery stores and caused food losses estimated at tens of millions of euros. The security of refrigeration systems and other remotely monitored devices has since raised fears of hybrid attacks backed by governments.

The EU’s food and agriculture commissioner, Christophe Hansen, said the bloc is taking the incidents very seriously and warned of further disruption in future. Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier avoided blaming anyone, but called the incidents a sign that such attacks are not isolated and that Europe must be collectively prepared.

Belgium was among the worst hit, with dozens of stores reporting refrigeration failures, and federal prosecutors have opened an investigation. Mathieu Tilman, a manager at a Delhaize supermarket there, said he was shocked and found the amount of food thrown away distressing.

Reports from other countries point to a pattern of attacks on the companies that manage refrigeration systems. In Germany, a cyber-attack on the system provider Danfoss disrupted refrigeration at the Rewe Büsken supermarket, and its systems were working again by Monday afternoon. In Portugal, the Mosqueteiros group linked incidents at seven Intermarché stores to an attack that appears to have targeted an external provider of refrigeration management.

Elsewhere, the picture was more limited. In Ireland, 13 SuperValu stores were affected by what their owner, Musgrave Group, called a cyber-incident, and restocking of chilled and frozen goods was well under way. A small number of corner shops in the Netherlands were disrupted. This follows a separate cyber-attack last month that forced the supermarket chain Albert Heijn to take several services offline.

In Sweden, the chain ICA reported refrigeration problems in a limited number of stores without confirming a cyber-attack, and national cyber-security agencies are monitoring the incident. In Finland, a few smaller stores of the Kesko group detected irregular temperatures, and the group is investigating. In Estonia, hackers reportedly raised the temperature in the refrigeration units of at least one supermarket to 50 degrees Celsius.

Also Read: Spain’s Transport Minister Steps Down Following Deadly Train Crash

Italy’s response focused on how well prepared its businesses were. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government called a meeting with intelligence chiefs and described the impact as currently very limited. At least four Co-op supermarkets in Sicily and one business in Tuscany were affected, according to the national cybersecurity agency. Meloni’s office said the affected businesses mostly still use obsolete security systems, with interfaces exposed directly to the internet and weak authentication.

The warning has now reached beyond the EU. Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has told retailers to update the software on their fridge temperature controls. The agency also said the country is likely to suffer an AI-powered cyber-attack on critical national infrastructure within two years.

NCSC chief executive Richard Horne said there were a couple of cases in the United Kingdom where vulnerable technology had been exploited, and the agency is working with those organisations. He added that the risk reaches across the whole food supply chain, and that the agency has worked through the night to alert organisations with exposed technology.

Thomas Regnier said, “These incidents show again how cyber-attacks can disrupt essential services and daily life.”