Dozens of supermarkets in Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg, Ireland and Estonia reported problems with their refrigeration systems on Monday, raising suspicions of a cyberattack similar to one that disrupted French stores several weeks earlier.
In October, cyberattacks disrupted cooling equipment at around 700 French supermarkets, including stores operated by Intermarche, Cooperative U and Carrefour, forcing retailers to discard products. The attackers appeared to have remotely manipulated defrosting mechanisms, causing fridges and freezers to overheat. No group has publicly claimed responsibility.
It has not been confirmed whether Monday’s incidents are connected to last month’s attacks or exploited the same software vulnerabilities used to target French supermarket chains.
RTL Belgium reported that an alleged cyberattack had affected several dozen stores in Belgium, including around 40 Delhaize outlets and 15 stores each operated by Carrefour and Intermarche. Hackers reportedly activated the defrost mode remotely, causing temperatures to rise and forcing some retailers to discard fresh and frozen stock.
Colruyt Group, which operates Spar stores, also reported problems with its cooling equipment, while Belgian butcher chain De Laet & Van Haver said some of its settings had been changed remotely.
A spokesperson for the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium told Politico that the agency was “closely” following the incident.
Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that Delhaize stores in Luxembourg had also been affected by the apparent cyberattack.
In Ireland, food wholesaler Musgrave said a cyber incident had affected cooling equipment at 13 SuperValu stores, forcing the chain to remove chilled and frozen products from sale.
According to Swedish broadcaster SVT, refrigerators and freezers at several ICA and Coop supermarkets were affected overnight, causing large quantities of food to spoil. Most of the affected stores were in the southern province of Skane, but equipment was also targeted on the island of Oland, in Varmland and in Stockholm. Temperatures in some freezers had reportedly reached around 50°C by morning.
An ICA spokesperson told SVT that the equipment in the worst-affected stores was connected to networks outside the company’s centralized system. Coop reported similar problems at six stores.
Estonia was also affected, with one Selver supermarket reporting an issue involving its cooling system. Public broadcaster ERR reported that a freezer setting had been raised to 50°C, but the problem was contained within minutes and no significant product losses were reported.
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