Supermarket chains in at least seven European countries said temperatures of refrigerators and freezers in some of their shops soared overnight to as high as 50C (122F), according to The Guardian, echoing a cyber-attack last month in France. Retailers in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden reported problems with their refrigeration systems on Monday, and several companies confirmed they had been hacked.
The EU food and agriculture commissioner, Christophe Hansen, said the repeated cyber-attacks were deeply concerning, calling them a deliberate attempt to disrupt the food supply chain and undermine consumers' confidence in it. The incidents follow an attack in France last month in which hackers seized control of cooling units in as many as 700 supermarkets, raising temperatures as high as 50C and causing fires and food losses estimated in the tens of millions of euros.
Sweden's Coop chain told the daily Aftonbladet that six of its shops had been hit, while ICA said it was aware that a limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems. An ICA shop at Sjöbo in southern Sweden posted that its fridges and freezers had been hacked and their temperature set at 50C.
The Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize said fridges and freezers in dozens of its supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg had been hit. A spokesperson, Sarah De Meester, said the range of fresh and frozen products was temporarily somewhat limited in affected shops, but distribution centres were operating normally and there was no disruption to deliveries.