Freezers at Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg grocery stores overheat
French law enforcement confirmed that hackers breached cooling equipment at up to 700 supermarkets, overriding thousands of commercial freezers, fridges and display cabinets. During the French breach, remote attackers manipulated temperature configurations, elevating chilled storage units from normal levels as low as -27°C to well over 50°C. Several grocery brands confirmed unexpected temperature spikes inside store chillers and freezers. Ahold Delhaize spokesperson Sarah De Meester confirmed cooling temperatures had increased and stated that an active investigation is underway. Similarly, Belgian daily Le Soir reported disruptions across dozens of outlets, including five Spar supermarkets, several Shop & Go convenience stores situated at Q8 petrol stations and multiple Proxy Delhaize neighbourhood shops. The Paris prosecutor’s office launched a formal investigation into the French attacks.
Supermarket refrigerators and freezers across Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg saw temperatures climb sharply overnight, triggering widespread alarm over a potential second cyberattack on European grocery retail, a report has said. At least one said cyberattacks affected supermarket fridges in Belgium and Sweden. In Belgium and Luxembourg, Dutch retail group Ahold Delhaize, which reported a separate cybersecurity incident to Dutch police last month, disclosed that an “IT incident” impacted cooling units across dozens of its locations. Competing grocer ICA noted it was aware of a “limited number of stores” affected by an overnight incident that disrupted their refrigeration and freezer controls. We spent all night and morning disconnecting the affected installations from the grid,” said Stephan Moelans, chief executive of cooling systems specialist Sabcobel, in an interview with Le Soir. Meanwhile, the Pentagon officials said the military investigators have been in touch with their French counterparts about the cyberattack on commercial freezers.
The incident comes just weeks after an October incident in France knocked out cold-storage systems at hundreds of supermarkets, spoiling millions of euros worth of food inventory. As per a report by The Guardian, technicians scrambled in the wee hours to keep units from overheating further. In Sweden, grocery giant Coop informed Swedish outlet Aftonbladet that six of its locations suffered temperature issues overnight. Technicians scrambled in the early morning hours to keep units from overheating further. “We started mobilising technicians at 1am. The latest wave of freezer failures essentially mirrors a cyberattack that struck French grocers in October. Threat actors disabled internal alarm mechanisms prior to altering thermostat readings or stretching defrost cycles by hours. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.