Second wave hits European supermarkets

About twenty refrigerator systems in supermarkets Delhaize, Carrefour and Spar experienced outages late Sunday night into Monday morning. Swedish chains ICA and Coop also reported similar outages, with incidents in Luxembourg and Estonia.

Technicians mobilised overnight

Stephan Moelans, CEO of refrigeration installer Sabcobel, said technicians began mobilising at one a.m. to get the situation under control. They worked all night and morning to disconnect affected units from the network.

Pattern mirrors French attacks last month

This wave mirrored hacking of hundreds of French supermarkets last month when refrigerator and freezer temperatures were raised, spoiling food and causing small fires.

Temperatures set to fifty degrees Celsius

ICA Kvantum Sjöbo in Sweden reported its refrigerators and freezers were hacked overnight with temperatures set to fifty degrees Celsius, or one hundred twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit.

“We are extremely sorry to have to throw out all this food, but we see no other way.”

Pentagon investigating both attack waves

In August, half a dozen U.S. military commissaries experienced similar refrigeration system outages. The Pentagon is now investigating both the French supermarket outages and the commissary outages as potential cyberattacks.

Why refrigeration is an attractive target

Cybersecurity experts say internet-connected refrigeration systems lack adequate security and use standardised devices across chains, exposing vulnerabilities widely.Outages cause direct financial harm because spoiled food cannot be recovered.

“You can't unspoil food or other products from these freezers. It's just euros and dollars down the drain.”