Refrigeration systems at supermarkets and food retailers across seven European countries were hit by a cyber-attack that caused freezers to malfunction and warm up to around 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), forcing stores to discard millions of euros worth of food.
The attack affected around 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg, along with a smaller number of shops in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland. Sabcobel, a Belgian refrigerator manufacturer, said the attack switched evaporators to defrost mode, using the same method believed responsible for an October attack on French supermarkets.
One Delhaize branch in Hoeilaart, Belgium told Het Laatste Nieuws it lost 100,000 euros in produce. In Sweden, several ICA and Coop shops were forced to close temporarily to dispose of spoiled inventory. An ICA branch in Sjöbo posted on social media that refrigerators and freezers were "hacked overnight" with temperatures set to 50 degrees.
Sabcobel CEO Stephan Moelans told the Belga news agency the company had been "working all night and morning to disconnect the affected units from the network." He said since October's French attack, Sabcobel had worked to protect customers' equipment but that units required physical modifications beyond software updates. After the French incident, most customers switched to secured internet connections to manage refrigerators remotely, he added.
The attacker's identity remains unclear. Belgium and Sweden's national cyber-security agencies said they were monitoring the incident. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre stated it was working with international partners and industry to understand the incident, though no UK incidents were reported.