Grocery store refrigerators, freezers hacked in Belgium, 6 other countries
Supermarket chains across northern and north-eastern Europe reported that their fridges and freezers had been targeted in a cyberattack for a second time.
Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Supermarket chains in Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden and Ireland said Monday that temperatures in their fridges climbed overnight in an apparent cyberattack, mirroring a similar incident in France three weeks ago that saw millions of dollars worth of frozen and refrigerated food spoiled.
The Netherlands' Ahold Delhaize said fridges and freezers in about 40 of its supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg had been affected by "an IT incident" that hiked cooling system temperatures and that it was investigating the cause, while dozens of stores acoss Belgium were impacted, including five Spar minimarts, multiple Shop & Go convenience stores and several Proxy Delhaize minimarkets.
The manager of one Delhaize store in Hoeilaart in northern Belgium said $112,200 worth of food had been destroyed, not including the losses that would be incurred from the shop being unable to open for business.
France's Carrefour chain said 15 of its stores in Belgium had been affected; Ireland's SuperValu supermarkets reported a cyber attack affecting a specific model of refrigerator at 13 of its stores while in Finland refrigeration technical glitches were flagged at some branches of its K-stores grocery chain.
In Sweden, the Coop said six of its stores were hit, while ICA said an incident impacted refrigeration and freezer systems in a limited number of its more than 1,300 grocery stores across the country. One branch in southern Sweden said hackers had set the temperature of its refrigerators and freezers to 50 degrees Celsius.
In Estonia, a Selver supermarket was also affected amid reports of other firms being impacted.
Sabcobel, one of Belgium's largest commercial refrigeration installation and maintenance providers, and which also manufactured some of the units affected, said hackers had remotely set the fridges to "defrost," allowing them to warm to a preset temperature -- the same technique used in the French attack.
"We started mobilising technicians at 1 a.m. We spent all night and morning disconnecting the affected installations from the grid," said chief executive Stephan Moelans.
