Shop freezers in six European countries hit by suspected cyber-attack
Supermarket freezers across six European countries stopped keeping food cold overnight, in what retailers and a refrigeration specialist believe was a coordinated cyber-attack.
Refrigerators and freezers in dozens of supermarkets across six European countries stopped keeping food cold overnight, in what retailers and a refrigeration specialist believe was a coordinated cyber-attack on the systems that control them.
Stores in Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands and Estonia were affected, and large quantities of chilled and frozen food had to be thrown away. The heaviest impact so far appears to be in Belgium and Luxembourg, where around forty Delhaize supermarkets reported problems.
The Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel, which operates systems for Delhaize, said the affected units had their evaporators switched into defrost mode, causing them to warm up. Its chief executive described the incident as a cyber-attack and said teams had spent the night and the morning disconnecting affected units from the network.
It is unclear who is behind the apparent attack. Cyber-security agencies in Belgium and Sweden said they were monitoring the incident, and the method described closely matches an attack that struck hundreds of French supermarkets in early October.
Reporting based on coverage from BBC News.