Dozens of grocery stores across Europe have reported rising temperatures in some of their refrigeration systems, with some retailers calling it a cyberattack while another called it an “IT incident.”
The incidents in Sweden, Belgium, and Estonia unfolded on Sunday night and come weeks after a hack on fridges and freezers in France that forced supermarkets to throw away food.
“Unauthorized actors were able to access and tamper with the cooling systems at a small fraction of our stores,” a spokesperson at Swedish supermarket chain Coop confirmed to Business Insider.
They said that seven out of its more than 800 stores were affected overnight and into Monday.
“The situation is currently contained and under control,” they added.
Gustaf Nilsson, spokesperson for ICA Sverige, another Swedish grocery retailer, said that an overnight incident affected a “small number” of its stores.
“The incident impacted the stores’ refrigeration and freezer systems,” Nilsson said in an emailed statement. “ICA is currently supporting the affected stores in managing the situation.”
The Sjöbo branch of the retailer said on its Facebook page that its refrigerators and freezers were hacked overnight, with their temperatures set to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. It said that the store was closed in the morning before later reopening.
In Belgium, the retail company Ahold Delhaize said it was aware of an “IT incident affecting the refrigeration systems in a number of Delhaize stores.”
“Our teams are working hard to fully assess the situation,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We will share further information as soon as we are able to do so.”
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Belgian news outlet RTL reported one Delhaize manager had to discard the contents of her fridges and freezers.
Carrefour said 15 of its 700 Belgian stores were affected, in both Flanders and Wallonia. A spokesperson said no hypermarkets were among them and that all affected stores remained open.
Ikea said it detected a cyber incident overnight at its Mons store in Belgium that affected refrigeration and freezer units. The store remains open, although the incident had a limited effect on products available in its restaurant and Swedish Food Market, a spokesperson said.
Ikea said no other Belgian locations were affected and that it was checking equipment across its other stores as a precaution.
A spokesperson for Kitman Coldtech, a refrigeration technology company, said that it had “responded to a cyber incident involving a refrigeration system at a retail location in Estonia.”
“As the situation has developed during the day and we understand that additional incidents may have occurred, the relevant authorities are now involved in investigating the circumstances,” they added.
It is not clear who is behind the attack.
France freezer hack to cost millions
The incidents are strikingly similar to a massive cyberattack that affected internet-connected refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets last month
The director of one Intermarché store in Normandy, France, told Business Insider that its fridges and freezers were remotely turned up to temperatures of up to 122F, resulting in $112,000 worth of food being discarded. Across the country, the costs are expected to rise to tens of millions of euros.
And in August, freezers failed at multiple US military sites, spoiling food.
A spokesperson for the Army Criminal Investigation Division told The Telegraph last month that the agency was working with investigators to determine the full extent of the incident.
“Army CID is also working with DCIS and French law enforcement in understanding the refrigeration outages in Europe,” they added.
No connection has been established between the latest incident in Europe, the cyberattacks in France, and US military freezer failures.
