Hackers shut down shop fridges across Europe

BRUSSELS/ STOCKHOLM/ LONDON:

A hacking attack on European supermarkets spread across the continent on Monday, hitting fridges and freezers from Sweden to Belgium and forcing stores to throw away food in an incident that echoed a similar attack in France last month.

The attack, which raised temperatures in refrigerator and freezer units at dozens of stores, hit supermarket groups Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt in Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as Swedish grocers ICA and Coop. Furniture-to-meatballs retailer IKEA also saw at least one store affected.

"Everything is destroyed," Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm, told Reuters during a visit to the store on Monday, adding the attack occurred at 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) but was only noticed hours later.

"There has been a cyberattack and all our freezers reached 50 degrees (Celsius)."

A spokesperson for privately held ICA said the company was aware that a "limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems".

The latest incidents follow an attack in France last month when police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, causing fires and food losses. Ahold also reported a cybersecurity incident to police last month.

While no one has claimed responsibility for either attack, the incidents have heightened concerns among European authorities about hybrid threats to infrastructure amid growing security tensions since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.