Suspected cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems have disrupted stores across several European countries, with around 20 units in Belgium affected overnight, according to the chief executive of installer Sabcobel.
Stephan Moelans said systems at Delhaize, Carrefour and Spar experienced outages from late Sunday into Monday morning. Similar incidents were reported at ICA and Coop stores in Sweden, as well as in Luxembourg and Estonia.
“We began mobilizing technicians at 1 a.m. to get the situation under control,” Mr Moelans told the Belgian news agency Belga. “We’ve been working all night and morning to disconnect the affected units from the network.”
The incidents bear similarities to a series of attacks on French supermarkets last month. Refrigerators and freezers at 80 Carrefour stores, about 24 Monoprix locations and 150 Intermarché branches were reportedly affected, with food spoiled and small fires breaking out.
One Swedish store, ICA Kvantum Sjöbo, said its refrigeration equipment had been hacked overnight and set to 50C. The shop said it had been forced to dispose of the food stored inside.
“We are extremely sorry to have to throw out all this food, but we see no other way,” the store said in a Facebook post. “Now we are focusing on getting everything back on track.”
ICA said the Swedish outages were limited to a small number of stores using an external supplier whose networks were separate from ICA’s main network. The company’s central systems were not affected.
Refrigeration systems emerge as suspected cyberattack target
Cybersecurity experts said internet-connected refrigeration equipment could be vulnerable because security is not always prioritised when such devices are designed. Nadiya Kostyuk, an assistant professor at the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology, said future and existing systems should be reviewed to address possible attack routes.
Commercial chains often use the same refrigeration equipment across multiple locations, creating the possibility that a weakness in one system could expose others, according to Christopher Whyte, an associate professor of homeland security and emergency preparedness at Virginia Commonwealth University.
The immediate financial impact also makes refrigerators and freezers an attractive target. Two French supermarkets, Intermarché and E.Leclerc, reported combined losses of about €270,000 after the earlier incidents.
There is no official confirmation that the European outages are connected. However, Mr Whyte said the timing and the similarity of the affected systems made the incidents worthy of suspicion.
The Pentagon is investigating the French supermarket outages alongside a similar refrigeration failure at about half a dozen US military commissaries in August, as potential cyberattacks.
The European Commission said the incidents demonstrated how cyberattacks could disrupt services, affect businesses and directly interfere with people’s daily lives.
