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The refrigeration systems of supermarket chains in many European countries have been attacked by cyber attacks one after another, causing the refrigerator temperature in some stores to rise abnormally. Operators are immediately investigating and dealing with the damage.
Dutch supermarket chains Ahold Delhaize and Belgium’s Colruyt said today that a late-night information technology (IT) incident caused refrigerator temperatures to rise rapidly at dozens of supermarket branches in Belgium and Luxembourg.sweden Similar conditions were reported at ICA and COP and one of its branches was blamed for a cyber attack.
The incidents follow cyberattacks on several large French supermarket chains last month, Reuters reported. At the time, police said:hacker Gained control of the refrigeration and freezing systems of hundreds of supermarkets and raised temperatures to 50 °C, causing fires and food loss.
Ahold also last month detected suspicious activity in its IT infrastructure and reported a cybersecurity incident to Dutch police.
Sara De Meester, a spokeswoman for supermarket chain Delhaize, said the company learned today that temperatures in refrigeration and freezing systems at its branches had risen and had launched an investigation.
Stephan Moelens, CEO of Sabkobel, the Belgian refrigeration equipment company responsible for Delhaize refrigeration and freezing systems, told the Belga news agency that the incident was a cyber attack. The hacker switches the device’s evaporator into defrost mode.
A spokesman for Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt said freezer systems at five of the group’s stores were attacked.
From refrigerators and heating systems to security cameras and alarm networks, more and more devices that used to be largely mechanical can now be monitored and controlled remotely, creating new attack opportunities for cybercriminals.
A spokesman for Carrefour’s Belgian branch told AFP today that 15 of the group’s stores in Belgium were hit by cyber attacks, causing temperatures in some refrigerators to rise rapidly.
“This is a cyber attack and there is no other reason for it,” said Mitch Vergouwen, a spokesman for Carrefour’s Belgian branch. He also stressed that the incident’s “impact is very limited.”
He said the group has a total of 700 branches in Belgium, of which 15 are affected, but not every refrigerator is affected.
John Billo, head of the Swedish National Cyber Security Centre, told Reuters the center was dealing with several incidents related to refrigeration systems in supermarkets across Sweden.
A branch of the Swedish supermarket chain ICA posted on social media that the refrigerator and freezer systems in the store had been “hacked” late at night, and the temperature of the equipment was changed to 50 degrees Celsius.
An ICA Baronen branch in Stockholm posted a notice saying that all of the store’s freezers had been damaged due to the cyber attack. The store’s sales manager said the cyberattack occurred at 2 a.m. (1 a.m. GMT) and was not detected until 5:30 a.m.
“We are aware that a small number of stores were affected by an incident late last night, which affected their refrigerator and freezer systems,” a spokesperson for unlisted ICA said by email.
Coop, another unlisted supermarket retail group, told Aftonbladet that six of its stores were affected by similar incidents. The COP did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
