Cyberattack on fridges hits supermarkets across Europe
XLP•Cyberattacks disrupted refrigeration systems at supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Ireland. Carrefour said 15 Belgian stores were affected, while Musgrave reported incidents at 13 SuperValu stores.
1. Stores hit by attacks
A cyberattack overnight on Monday affected supermarket refrigerators and freezers across Europe, with chains in Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg reporting temperature spikes. An ICA franchise store manager in Stockholm said its freezers reached 50 degrees Celsius and that its stock was destroyed.
2. Reported store impacts
Carrefour said 15 of its 700 stores in Belgium were affected, while Colruyt Group said five Belgian shops had their refrigeration systems attacked. Musgrave said refrigeration systems were affected at 13 SuperValu stores in Ireland, forcing the removal of some chilled and frozen products from sale.
3. Investigation underway
Sweden’s national cybersecurity centre is working on several incidents affecting grocery stores. A researcher at SentinelOne said the lack of financial demands in recent supermarket cases pointed to sabotage, but Reuters was unable to establish who was behind Monday’s attacks or whether they were linked to attacks in France last month.
