Supermarkets across Europe hit by suspected cyber attack as fridges turned up

Supermarkets across Europe hit by suspected cyber attack as fridges turned up IT incident hits retail chains in Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in Supermarket giants across Europe have warned of a fresh string of cyber attacks as fridge and freezer temperatures have unexpectedly spiked. An IT incident overnight hit fridges and freezers in dozens of stores across Belgium and Luxembourg, retailers Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt said on Monday. Swedish grocers ICA And Coop reported similar temperature increases, with one store expliciting blaming a cyber attack. In Ireland, refrigeration systems at 13 SuperValu stores were also impacted by a suspected cyber attack. It comes after Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize reported a cyber security incident to police in October after detecting “suspicious activity” in its infrastructure. On Monday, the chain realised there were temperature increases in the cooling systems. A spokesperson for the company said it is investigating the incident. The potential attack follows a similar incident in France last month, in which police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, raising temperatures as high as 50°C and causing fires and food losses. CEO of Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel, Stephan Moelans, which operates Delhaize's systems, said the incident was a cyberattack, in which the units' evaporators were switched to defrost mode. Moelans' office declined to comment when contacted by reporters. A spokesperson for Colruyt Group, which operates Spar stores in Belgium under a franchise system, said five shops had their fridge systems attacked. One Swedish ICA store said on social media that the temperature of its refrigerators and freezers had been "hacked" overnight and set to 50°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 2 am local time but wasn’t noticed until 5.30 am. "We’re aware that a limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems," a spokesperson at ICA said over email. Grocery retail group Coop told local news that six of its stores had been affected by similar incidents. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An Estonian supermarket chain was also affected, with temperatures set to 50°C, technology supplier Kitman Coldtech told public broadcaster ERR. "This is very fresh, it happened this morning," Kitman CEO Jann Mutso said. He declined to name the affected grocery chain. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments