Suspected cyberattacks have caused temperatures to spike in supermarket refrigeration systems across several European countries, authorities and retailers said on Monday, raising fresh concerns over the vulnerability of critical food supply infrastructure.
Overnight temperature increases were reported in stores in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden, weeks after a similar attack in France spoiled food and sparked fires.
John Billow, head of Sweden’s national cybersecurity centre, confirmed the centre was responding to multiple incidents affecting store cooling systems.
“We have in recent weeks … identified that we have quite a lot of exposed operational technology devices in Sweden that we have been clear about the necessity to update or patch,” Billow said.
Swedish retailers ICA and Coop reported sudden temperature rises in freezers at several stores, while Axfood said freezers at a distribution centre near Gothenburg were hacked. In Ireland, SuperValu said a specific model of refrigeration systems was affected by a “cyber incident” at 13 of its 223 stores.
In Belgium and Luxembourg, dozens of Ahold Delhaize stores experienced overnight temperature increases blamed on a cyberattack, according to Stephan Moelans, chief executive of refrigeration company Sabcobel. He said the units’ evaporators were switched to defrost mode. Five Spar shops in Belgium were also affected.
In Estonia, at least one supermarket chain was hit, with temperatures reportedly set to 50 degrees Celsius (122F), Kitman Coldtech CEO Jann Mutso said.
“This is very fresh, it happened this morning,” Mutso said.
The earlier French attack had raised fridge and freezer temperatures to as high as 50C, causing food losses and fires. No group has claimed responsibility for either incident.
European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen described the attacks as “a deliberate attempt to disrupt” EU food supplies and undermine public confidence.
A European Commission spokesperson said: “These incidents show that cyberattacks can disrupt services, affect businesses and directly affect citizens’ daily lives.”
