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Hackers Raise Temperatures in European Supermarket Freezers
· Confirmed
In Short: Hackers raised the temperatures of refrigeration systems at supermarkets in Germany, Romania, and the United Kingdom on Monday, bringing the total number of affected European countries to at least 11, according to officials.
Hackers raised the temperatures of refrigeration systems at supermarkets in Germany, Romania, and the United Kingdom on Monday, bringing the total number of affected European countries to at least 11, according to officials. The attacks, which have spoiled tonnes of food across the continent, have hit supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and now Romania and the UK.
In Sicily, four of the 300 Coop supermarkets were hit, causing thousands of euros in damage, said Giuseppe Spadaro, director of a group that runs Coop supermarkets there. The affected stores in Sicily were among the six Coop stores in central Sweden that experienced problems with their fridges and freezers, though details were not immediately available.
In Sweden, the ICA Kvantum branch in Sjöbo reported that its fridges and freezers had been hacked and set to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Shoppers at the ICA Baronen store in central Stockholm found freezers switched off, while the Delhaize chain said an “IT incident” had affected refrigeration systems in several dozen of its stores, mostly in Belgium but also a few in neighboring Luxembourg.
Carrefour reported that about 15 of its 700 stores in Belgium were affected, while Monoprix said about 5 percent of its roughly 490 stores were hit. SuperValu, Ireland’s third-largest supermarket chain, said refrigeration systems in 13 of its 223 shops had been affected by a cyber-incident, leading to the removal of chilled and frozen products from sale.
Danfoss, a Danish maker of refrigeration controls, said its products were involved, as they were three weeks earlier when attackers hit hundreds of French supermarkets. Stephan Moelans, CEO of Sabcobel, which makes software that controls supermarket freezers, told the Belga News Agency his company worked “all night and morning to disconnect the affected units from the network.”
In response to the attacks, supermarket chains across Europe have been mobilizing technicians to address the issues. Rickard Nilsson, head of an Ica shop in Sjöbo, southern Sweden, said, “We can’t adjust the temperatures, we can’t change them. Hot air is blowing into the freezers. Everything is ruined.”
What this adds
The attacks have affected a wide range of supermarket chains, including IKEA, which reported a cyber incident affecting refrigerators and freezers at its Mons store in Belgium between Sunday and Monday.
Background
Hackers remotely raised temperatures in refrigeration units at supermarkets in seven European countries, spoiling food worth millions of euros.
Dozens of grocery stores in seven European countries lost chilled and frozen food overnight after remote refrigeration units were switched to defrost.
What's confirmed
- The attacks, reported on Monday, affected supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Sweden.
- The ICA Kvantum branch in Sjöbo in southern Sweden wrote on its Facebook page that its fridges and freezers had been hacked and set to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
- The Coop chain said that six of its stores in central Sweden had problems with their fridges and freezers, TT reported, though it didn’t immediately have details.
- Supermarket chains in at least seven European countries have said the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers in some of their shops soared overnight to as high as 50C (122F), echoing a cyber-attack last month that caused millions of euros of damage in France.
- Ireland’s third-largest supermarket chain, SuperValu, said refrigeration systems limited to a specific model in 13 of its 223 shops had been affected by a cyber-incident, and that chilled and frozen products had been removed from sale.
- The Colruyt and Intermarché supermarket chains also said they had been hit by technical problems affecting fridges in five and 15 of their shops respectively, and Carrefour Belgium reported disruption in about 15 of its 700 shops.
- Gustaf Nilsson, a spokesperson for Sweden’s ICA Group supermarket chain, told the TT news agency that “a limited number” of stores were affected overnight by an incident that affected refrigeration and freezing systems.
What's still developing
- Nothing material beyond the confirmed record.