SuperValu among several supermarkets hit by Europe-wide cyberattack

All refrigerated and frozen produce in 13 SuperValu stores have been removed from sale, as other supermarket chains in Europe confirmed they were targeted in what is believed to be a cyber-attack.

Supermarket chains in Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg said the temperatures of their refrigerators and freezers in dozens of stores rose overnight, prompting fears of a cyber-attack similar to one that caused millions of euros of food losses in France last month.

Musgrave, which owns the SuperValu brand, confirmed that "a cyber incident has affected refrigeration systems in 13 SuperValu stores”.

A spokesperson said that the incident is limited to a specific model of refrigeration, and that their monitoring systems alerted them to the issue and they “took immediate action”.

At least one store in Munster is understood to be affected.

“As a precaution, chilled and frozen products in the affected stores have been removed from sale, and all other products remain available as normal.

“Customer safety is our first priority, and customers can be confident that products on sale in our stores have been stored at safe temperatures.”

The SuperValu spokesperson added that its investigation is ongoing, and said it is working closely with the suppliers of the affected refrigeration equipment and with cybersecurity specialists to resolve the issue and restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

Retailers across Europe also affected

Sweden’s Coop chain said six of ​its stores ‌had been ​affected, while ICA said it was “aware that a limited ​number of stores were affected by an incident overnight which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems”.

The Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize, which last ​month ​reported a ​cybersecurity ‌incident ​to police in the Netherlands, said an “IT incident” ​had hit fridges and ⁠freezers in dozens of its ⁠supermarkets in ​Belgium ‌and ‌Luxembourg.

Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper reported that dozens of stores and supermarkets were affected, including five Spar outlets, multiple Shop & Go convenience stores attached to Q8 service stations, and a number of smaller Proxy Delhaize minimarkets.

It comes as earlier this month, hundreds of French supermarkets were hit by a cyber-attack that caused their fridges and freezers to heat up, some to 50C, overnight, spoiling food estimated to be worth millions of euro.

French ⁠police said in October that hackers had seized control of cooling units at ⁠up to 700 supermarkets in a large-scale attack that led to heavy losses of chilled and frozen foods and underlined the vulnerability of internet-connected systems.

Hackers had remotely overridden the settings on thousands of freezers, fridges and chiller cabinets, pushing them from as low as -27C to well over 50C.

The Intermarché, Coopérative U, Carrefour, Leclerc and Monoprix chains were among those affected.

Cormac Quish, who owns Supervalu in Ballincollig, Cork, said the incident did not affect them.

Although Musgraves centrally owns some SuperValu branches, most stores operating under the SuperValu name are independently owned.

Mr Quish explained that they monitor fridge temperatures within the store, but that different stores use different systems.

Despite not being affected by this cyber-attack, the news was worrying, he said. “In our stores it’s not a problem, but it is a concern.”

Motive 'unclear and unknown'

Professor Utz Roedig at University College Cork’s computer science department said that when people hear of cyber-attacks, they tend to think PCs, but the majority of computers are “all the little gadgets we rely on to function”, including fridges that can be controlled via the internet.

“These computers are used for industrial control, building management, smart homes, transport systems, energy systems, hospital infrastructure and much more.”

He continued: “In this type of attack the attacker does usually not have a direct financial benefit. In this case, the attacker tries to create disruption to our everyday life; so we see our shopping for food is disrupted.

“The motive is unclear and unknown, it could just be a case that someone might do this just because they can, however, it could also hypothetically be a state actor that wants to cause disruption to another country.”

Prof Roedig said that as the technical details are not clear yet, it is difficult to say exactly what happened, “however usually this kind of refrigeration infrastructure is automated so you can monitor and control it centrally, the idea being to ensure product safety.

“If an attacker takes over the IT system at the centre of the monitoring, they can then also control the linked fridges and manipulate the cooling setpoint.”

Other Irish retailers do not seem to have been affected by the cyber-attack.

A spokesperson for Lidl said: “Lidl Ireland has not been impacted by a cyber incident. All of our stores, distribution centres and offices continue to trade as normal.”

- additional reporting from The Guardian

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