A wave of cyber-attacks targeting supermarket refrigeration systems across at least 10 European countries has raised concerns about possible attempts to disrupt the continent’s food supply chain.
The attacks, reported on Monday, affected supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Sweden.
The incidents caused freezer temperatures to rise sharply, forcing several retailers to discard food. Temperatures in some refrigeration units reportedly reached 50C.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The European Union said it was taking the incidents seriously, particularly as they came three weeks after a separate cyber-attack disrupted as many as 700 grocery stores in France. The French incident caused food losses estimated at tens of millions of euros.
The attacks have also raised concerns about the vulnerability of refrigeration systems and other devices that can be monitored remotely, amid fears of possible government-backed hybrid operations.
The EU’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, warned that further disruption could occur and said the bloc was treating the incidents seriously.
European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said the attacks showed how cyber incidents could disrupt essential services and affect people’s daily lives.
“These are not isolated incidents and of course we have to be collectively resilient and prepared for such cyber incidents.”
In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government convened a meeting with intelligence chiefs to assess the situation.
However, the government said the impact remained limited, adding that most of the country’s food distribution network had modern security systems capable of preventing such attacks.
At least four Co-op supermarkets in Sicily and a business in Tuscany were affected, according to Italy’s national cybersecurity agency.
Meloni’s office said the affected businesses mostly used outdated security systems, with interfaces directly exposed to the internet and inadequate authentication measures.
Belgium was among the hardest-hit countries, with dozens of supermarkets reporting refrigeration failures. Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incidents.
Mathieu Tilman, a manager at a Delhaize supermarket in Belgium, expressed shock at the scale of the disruption and the resulting food waste.
“I don’t even understand how anyone could do this… How can we end up throwing away so much food? I find it truly distressing. In moments like these, you just feel like quitting your job.”
In Ireland, 13 SuperValu stores were affected by what the supermarket chain’s owner, Musgrave Group, described as a cyber incident.
A company spokesman said the restocking of chilled and frozen products in the affected stores was already underway.
In the Netherlands, a small number of convenience stores also experienced disruption. Supermarket chain Albert Heijn had taken several services offline last month following a separate cyber-attack.
In Germany, refrigeration systems at Rewe Büsken supermarket in the western part of the country were disrupted following an attack on its system provider, Danfoss.
The company told reporters that its systems had returned to operation by Monday afternoon.
Portugal’s Mosqueteiros group also linked incidents at seven Intermarché stores to a cyber-attack. The company said the attack appeared to have targeted an external service provider responsible for managing refrigeration systems.
Swedish supermarket chain ICA reported refrigeration problems at a limited number of its stores but did not confirm whether they were caused by a cyber-attack. The country’s national cybersecurity agencies said they were monitoring the situation.
In Finland, the Kesko group detected irregular temperatures in a few smaller grocery stores and said it was investigating the incidents.
Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR reported that hackers had targeted at least one supermarket and raised the temperature of its refrigeration units to 50C.
Meanwhile, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned retailers to update the software controlling their refrigerator temperatures.
The agency also warned that Britain could experience an artificial intelligence-powered cyber-attack targeting critical national infrastructure within the next two years.
NCSC chief Richard Horne said that there had been instances in the UK where vulnerable technology had been exploited following the attacks. “We don’t know the full impact, but we do know there are a couple of instances where vulnerable technology has been exploited and we’re working with those organisations.”
Asked whether there was evidence that British supermarkets or freezers of the same make or model had been targeted, Horne said the threat extended beyond supermarkets to the wider food supply chain.
He said the agency had worked through the night to alert organisations whose exposed technology could be vulnerable to similar attacks.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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