Supermarkets and food businesses in at least nine European countries have reported refrigeration disruptions linked to suspected cyberattacks, forcing some retailers to discard spoiled food and raising concerns about vulnerabilities in the technology supporting the continent’s food supply chain.
Key Highlights
- Suspected cyberattacks disrupted supermarket refrigeration in nine European countries on November 2.
- Hackers allegedly manipulated refrigeration systems remotely, causing freezer temperatures to rise.
- Belgium was among the hardest hit, with Carrefour, Delhaize, Colruyt, Intermarché and IKEA affected.
- The incidents follow a similar attack on hundreds of stores in France about three weeks earlier.
- No group has claimed responsibility, and EU officials say overall food security is not under threat.
The incidents, reported on Monday, November 2, affected businesses in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden, with hackers suspected of remotely manipulating refrigeration systems and causing temperatures in some freezers and cooling units to rise.
The latest wave of disruptions came about three weeks after a similar cyberattack affected hundreds of supermarkets and independent stores in France, where hackers reportedly gained control of refrigeration equipment and caused significant food losses.
No individual or group has claimed responsibility for either incident, while investigators have yet to establish whether the attacks across the different countries were coordinated.
European Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen described the incidents as a deliberate attempt to disrupt the bloc’s food supply chain and undermine consumer confidence.
He said the European Commission was taking the attacks seriously, warning that the repeated incidents highlighted the need to protect critical infrastructure supporting food distribution.
Belgium Among Hardest Hit
Belgium was among the hardest-hit countries, with dozens of outlets belonging to different retail chains reporting problems with their refrigeration systems.
Carrefour Belgium confirmed that about 15 of its 700 stores were affected, while Delhaize, Colruyt and Intermarché also reported disruptions. IKEA said its outlet in Mons experienced an incident that caused freezer temperatures to rise.
Belgium’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into the incident, while the country’s Centre for Cybersecurity confirmed it was aware of the reported attacks.
Refrigeration company Sabcobel said some of the affected systems had not been upgraded despite security measures introduced after the October attack in France.
Its chief executive, Stephan Moelans, said the attackers remotely switched refrigeration evaporators into defrost mode, causing temperatures to rise and threatening stored food.
Italy, Portugal, Ireland And Sweden
In Italy, at least four Coop supermarkets in Sicily were affected by attacks on refrigeration systems controlling food display units.
Giuseppe Spadaro, head of the Radenza Group, which manages Coop-branded supermarkets, told news agency ANSA that the attack occurred at about 4am and involved the group’s remote-control system for frozen food sections.
He said the temperature settings were altered, causing some food products to deteriorate, while the company had taken steps to resolve the problem.
Italy’s Postal Police began investigating the origin and extent of the breaches, including possible links with similar incidents reported elsewhere in Europe.
In Portugal, the Mosqueteiros group confirmed incidents at seven Intermarché stores, telling Agence France-Presse that the attack appeared to have targeted an external service provider responsible for managing refrigeration systems.
In Ireland, Musgrave Group, the parent company of SuperValu, said 13 stores were affected by a cyber incident involving refrigeration equipment.
The company removed some chilled and frozen products from sale as a precaution, but later reported that the incident had been resolved and restocking was under way.
Swedish supermarket chains Coop and ICA also reported refrigeration problems, although their accounts differed on the extent of the cyber interference.
Coop confirmed that six of its approximately 800 stores had been affected by a cyber incident involving unauthorised manipulation of refrigeration systems. The retailer said the affected units had returned to normal operation.
ICA, however, reported problems in a limited number of outlets without independently confirming that all the incidents were cyberattacks.
Netherlands, Finland And Estonia
The disruptions also extended to smaller food businesses in the Netherlands, where refrigeration supplier Danfoss confirmed that at least 17 businesses had been affected.
The company said the affected establishments were mainly butcher shops and small grocery stores, adding that major Dutch supermarket chains were not known to have been affected by that particular incident.
A spokesperson for Danfoss said some of the affected businesses had failed to secure their refrigeration systems after the October attack in France, with some equipment reportedly still operating on default passwords and unsecured networks.
The supplier said it had previously advised customers to disconnect vulnerable systems from the internet and reconnect them only through secure networks.
In Finland, some smaller grocery stores operated by the Kesko group detected irregular temperatures in their refrigeration units. The company said it was investigating the cause and had not ruled out interference through the network.
Estonia also reported an incident involving a supermarket refrigeration system. According to public broadcaster ERR, hackers accessed a computer controlling the equipment and raised the temperature of a freezer to 50 degrees Celsius.
The incident was addressed within minutes, with the refrigeration equipment supplier reporting no significant damage.
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Experts Warn Of Sabotage Risk
The latest attacks have renewed concerns about the security of equipment that can be monitored and controlled remotely.
Unlike conventional cyberattacks that target customer information, payment systems or business databases, the incidents demonstrate how interference with operational technology can affect physical equipment and disrupt essential business activities.
Cybersecurity experts have warned that retailers operate large numbers of remotely managed devices, including refrigeration controllers, heating systems, security cameras and access-control equipment, creating potential entry points for attackers.
Tom Hegel, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, said the absence of financial demands in the recent incidents could point towards sabotage rather than conventional cyber extortion.
He also warned that the scale of retail infrastructure and the difficulty of tracing attacks against remotely controlled equipment could make such incidents challenging to investigate.
Although the latest disruptions have raised concerns about the resilience of Europe’s food supply chain, EU officials have indicated that the bloc’s overall food security is not currently under threat.
The incidents have, however, exposed the potential economic consequences of weaknesses in the technology used to preserve food, particularly for retailers forced to discard products after refrigeration failures.
With investigations continuing in several countries, authorities have yet to identify those responsible or establish whether the incidents form part of a coordinated campaign.
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