Supermarkets in Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden reported overnight disruptions to refrigeration and freezer systems on Monday, November 2, after temperatures rose sharply in affected stores
Retailers are investigating suspected cyberattacks, but no group has claimed responsibility and no connection to last month’s French incidents has been established.
Ahold Delhaize said an IT incident affected cooling systems at dozens of stores in Belgium and Luxembourg. Its Delhaize chain detected rising temperatures and is investigating. Colruyt Group said refrigeration systems at five Belgian Spar stores had been attacked, according to Reuters’ reporting.
In Sweden, ICA said a limited number of stores were affected, while Coop told local media that six stores had experienced similar problems. One Swedish store said its refrigerators and freezers had been set to 50°C. Sweden’s national cybersecurity centre is examining several refrigeration-system incidents. The Guardian also reported that technicians were disconnecting affected equipment as retailers assessed the damage.
The latest incidents follow an October attack in France in which police said hackers took control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, raising temperatures and causing food losses and fires. The French investigation highlighted the risks of remotely managed refrigeration equipment connected to store networks or the internet.
Abijita has also reported on separate freezer failures at U.S. military commissaries under Pentagon investigation. Officials have not established a connection between those cases and the European incidents. Earlier, a ransomware attack on a software supplier forced Swedish Coop to close about 500 stores after checkout systems stopped working, as described in Abijita’s coverage of the Kaseya supply-chain attack.
If this article helped you, please consider supporting our work. Every small contribution keeps Abijita.com independent and running.
Refrigeration controls, like other operational technology, can become an entry point when remotely accessible systems are exposed or left unpatched. Investigators have not publicly identified the entry method, affected controller models or a common attacker behind the new incidents.
