Dozens of supermarkets in Europe reported an increase in the temperature of their refrigerators and refrigerators overnight, which is now widely believed to be due to cyberattacks similar to the one that hit France several weeks ago.
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Supermarket chains in Belgium, Sweden, Estonia, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland were affected.
The story began when Belgian media reported on Monday that refrigerators had been raised to 17 degrees Celsius, forcing many stores to throw away food.
The Belgian Center for Cyber Security (CCB) told Belgian store Belga that it was aware of an incident targeting supermarket refrigeration systems.
CCB spokesperson Katrien Eggers told Euronews Next: “We are aware of an incident, but we have no further information.” There is no information yet on who was responsible for the attack…and it may never be possible to identify them.”
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into this incident, according to a spokesperson.
Around forty Delhaize Proxy supermarkets, 15 Carrefour Shop & Go stores, 15 Intermarché stores and five Spar Q8 service stations were affected in Belgium, according to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir.
The De Laet en Van Haver butchery group also said its refrigerators were affected. IKEA also reported that its Bergen store, located in Mons, had been affected, bringing the total to 75 affected stores in Belgium.
“We identified an IT incident affecting the refrigeration systems of several dozen stores. We immediately took the necessary measures to keep our stores operational,” a Delhaize spokesperson told Euronews Next.
Carrefour told Euronews Next this morning that “the impact at Carrefour is very limited: currently 15 of our 700 stores are affected, both in Flanders and Wallonia. No hypermarket is included.”
“All stores remain open as this only concerns a few refrigeration units, mainly freezers. Swift measures have been taken to ensure that all stores can remain open,” they added.
Later in the morning, Carrefour Belgium spokesperson Mich Vergauwen said: “It’s a cyberattack, there is no other reason,” adding that “the impact is very limited.”
The incident is believed to have occurred between Sunday evening and Monday morning, causing refrigerator temperatures to skyrocket.
Stephan Moelans, CEO of refrigeration installer Sabcobel, which manages Delhaize’s refrigerators and freezing systems, told media outlet Belga that the Belgian attack involves exactly the same mechanism as the previous French cyberattack.
“Over the past few weeks, we have worked very hard to protect our customers’ refrigerators from this vulnerability,” Moelans said.
He explained that the incident occurred when the units’ evaporators were switched to defrost mode.
The refrigeration industry executive said a software update alone was not enough to address the vulnerability, with physical changes required instead.
“This requires investment. The simplest solution is to manage the refrigerators via a secure Internet connection. Most of our customers opted for this solution after the attack in France.”
Sabcobel knows of around twenty units concerned, out of the hundreds it manages across Belgium.
Danfoss, the company that provided software for the refrigeration systems affected in the latest incident and the one in France in October, said customers who had not updated their software were affected.
A spokesperson told VTM NIEUWS that “the company says the vulnerability lies mainly in outdated software and that it had already urged customers to start using their new software.”
Stores affected across Europe
Problems also reportedly occurred at several stores of Swedish supermarket chains ICA and Coop last night, with fridges and freezers turned up to 50 degrees Celsius.
A similar incident occurred in Estonian at a site of the Selver supermarket chain, according to media reports.
13 SuperValu stores in Ireland have been affected by a suspected cyber incident, according to a statement from owner Musgrave to the Irish Times.
In the Netherlands, the freezing and cooling systems of at least seventeen companies were attacked last night, according to a spokesperson for supplier Danfoss. The identity of the companies has not been disclosed.
Delhaize also suspended its ordering systems in Luxembourg as a precautionary measure to avoid a similar incident.
Finnish media report that several K Group supermarkets have been affected. K Group is one of the largest retail chains in Finland.
These reported incidents follow a similar attack in France just a few weeks ago, on October 12, when hundreds of French supermarkets belonging to the Intermarché and Coopérative U chains fell victim to a cyberattack targeting their refrigeration systems.
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