A cyberattack targeting European supermarkets spread across several countries on Monday, affecting refrigeration and freezer systems in stores from Sweden to Belgium. The incident forced retailers to discard food products and followed a similar attack in France last month.
The attack caused temperatures to rise inside refrigeration and freezer units at dozens of stores. Supermarket groups Ahold Delhaize (AD.AS) and Colruyt (COLR.BR) were affected in Belgium and Luxembourg, alongside Swedish retailers ICA and Coop. IKEA, the furniture retailer known for its meatball offering, also reported that at least one store had been impacted.
“Everything is destroyed,” Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm, told Reuters during a visit to the premises on Monday. She said the attack took place at 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) but was not detected until several hours later.
“There has been a cyberattack and all our freezers reached 50 degrees (Celsius).”
A spokesperson for privately owned ICA said the company was aware that a “limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems”.
The latest incidents follow a cyberattack in France last month, when police reported that hackers had taken control of cooling systems at hundreds of supermarkets, leading to fires and food losses. Ahold also reported a cybersecurity incident to police last month.
No group has claimed responsibility for either attack. However, the incidents have increased concerns among European authorities about hybrid threats targeting critical infrastructure, amid heightened security tensions following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in sabotage or hybrid warfare operations. Reuters said it could not determine who was responsible for Monday’s attacks or establish whether they were connected to the incidents in France.
“It is not known who is behind this attack, and it may never be determined,” said Katrien Eggers, spokesperson for Belgium’s Centre for Cybersecurity. She added that the growing number of incidents was concerning, particularly given the role of artificial intelligence.
“All IT systems are potentially vulnerable, and AI can now be used to successfully exploit these weaknesses — especially by sophisticated actors,” she said.
‘RETAIL IS AN EASY TARGET’
An increasing number of devices that were once largely mechanical can now be monitored and controlled remotely. These include refrigerators, heating systems, security cameras and alarm systems, creating additional opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities.
At least some of the refrigeration units affected on Monday used temperature-control technology supplied by Danish company Danfoss, which was also targeted during the cyberattack in France. The company said it had been working with customers to introduce corrective measures.
The European Commission said the latest incidents demonstrated how digital threats could cause increasingly serious disruption.
“They are a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers’ confidence in it – a warning that we must take seriously,” said EU commissioner for agriculture Christophe Hansen. “The repeated occurrence of these cyberattacks is deeply concerning.”
