Shop freezers in seven European countries hit by cyber-attack

Key points

• About 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, with smaller numbers hit in five other countries.
• Sabcobel said evaporators were switched to defrost mode, the method believed used in October's French attack.
• A Delhaize branch in Hoeilaart, Belgium, said it lost €100,000 worth of produce.

Dozens of supermarkets in seven European countries have been hit by a cyber-attack that affected their refrigerators and freezers, the BBC reported. Around 40 Delhaize stores in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, along with a smaller number of shops in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.

Sabcobel, a Belgian manufacturer of some of the affected refrigerators, said the units' evaporators were switched to defrost mode, causing them to warm up. The company believes the same method was used in an incident last month that hit hundreds of French supermarkets, where millions of euros of food were thrown away, according to local media.

Company response

Sabcobel CEO Stephan Moelans told the Belga news agency the incident was a cyber-attack and that the company had been "working all night and morning to disconnect the affected units from the network". He said the units needed physical modifications, not just software updates, to address the vulnerability.

Moelans said most customers had switched to managing fridges over a secure internet connection after the French attack. Temperatures in freezers at several shops reportedly rose to as high as 50C (122F), and it is unclear who is behind the latest attack.

Our refrigerators and freezers have been hacked overnight and they have set the temperature to 50 degrees.

— An ICA branch in Sjöbo, Sweden, in a social media post

Impact on retailers

A Delhaize branch in Hoeilaart, in northern Belgium, told Het Laatste Nieuws it had lost €100,000 worth of produce, an estimate that did not include further losses from closing the shop. Carrefour said 15 of its Belgian stores were affected, and Colruyt Group said five Spar shops had their fridge systems attacked.

Ikea said refrigeration systems at its store in Mons, Belgium, were affected. In Sweden, seven of Coop's 800 stores were hit but the company said the situation was contained, and an ICA branch in Sjöbo wrote on social media that its fridges and freezers had been hacked overnight. In Ireland, 13 SuperValu supermarkets were impacted, while Danfoss told NOS that at least 17 companies in the Netherlands were attacked.

Official investigations

Belgium and Sweden's national cyber-security agencies said they were monitoring the incident. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre said it was working with international partners and industry to "fully understand details of an incident", and no incidents have been reported in the UK.

In the US, authorities are investigating refrigeration malfunctions at several military bases in August and working with French officials to examine whether the incidents could be linked.