Hackers turn up the heat on European supermarkets in fridge attacks

Refrigerators sit empty at an Intermarche supermarket in Paris attacked by hackers in October.

Supermarkets in Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Estonia faced suspected cyberattacks that changed fridge and freezer temperatures, disrupting stores and causing food risks.

Ahold Delhaize, Colruyt, ICA and Coop reported incidents. Some units were switched to defrost mode, and one Swedish store said temperatures reached 50 deg C.

The attacks follow a similar case in France, where hackers reportedly took control of hundreds of cooling units. Officials warn exposed devices need urgent updates and patches.

STOCKHOLM – Supermarkets across Europe were hit by suspected cyberattacks that resulted in sudden changes in the temperatures of their fridges and freezers on Monday, weeks after a similar but more widespread issue in France.

Incidents were reported in Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Estonia.

Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt said on Nov 2 that a hacking incident overnight hit fridges and freezers in dozens of stores in Belgium and Luxembourg, while Swedish grocers ICA and Coop reported similar temperature spikes, with one store blaming a cyberattack.

The incidents follow an attack in France in October in which police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets , raising temperatures as high as 50 deg C and causing fires and food losses.

Ahold also reported a cybersecurity incident to Dutch police in October after it detected suspicious activity in its infrastructure.

On Nov 2, the Delhaize supermarket chain realised there were temperature increases in the cooling systems, spokeswoman Sarah De Meester said. The company is investigating the incident.

Stephan Moelans, the CEO of Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel, which operates Delhaize’s systems, told the Belga news agency that the incident was a cyberattack, in which the units’ evaporators were switched to defrost mode.

A spokesman for Colruyt Group, which operates Spar stores in Belgium under a franchise system, said five shops had their fridge systems attacked.

From refrigerators and heating systems to security cameras and alarm networks, an expanding range of devices once largely mechanical can now be monitored and controlled remotely, creating new opportunities for cybercriminals.

The authorities have not indicated who could have been behind the October incidents. There were no claims of responsibility.

The head of Sweden’s national cybersecurity centre, John Billow, said his agency was working on several incidents regarding refrigeration systems in grocery stores around Sweden.

One Swedish ICA store said on social media that the temperature of its refrigerators and freezers was “hacked” overnight and set to 50 deg C. It said later that the store had since opened.

At an ICA Baronen store in Stockholm, a notice said all the shop’s freezers were broken due to a cyberattack. The store’s sales manager said the attack happened at 2am and was noticed at 5.30am..

“We are aware that a limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems,” a spokesman at privately held ICA said in an e-mail.

Privately held grocery retail group Coop told Swedish daily Aftonbladet that six of its stores were affected by similar incidents.

“We have, in recent weeks, identified that we have quite a lot of exposed operational technology devices in Sweden that we have been clear the necessity to update or patch,” the cybersecurity centre’s Billow said.

An Estonian supermarket chain was also affected, with temperatures set to 50 deg C, technology supplier Kitman Coldtech told public broadcaster ERR.

“This is very fresh. It happened this morning,” Kitman CEO Jann Mutso told ERR. He declined to name the affected grocery chain. REUTERS

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