European supermarkets in several countries were hit by a cyberattack on Monday, disrupting refrigeration systems, spoiling food stocks and forcing stores to discard affected products. The incident stretched from Sweden to Belgium and bore similarities to a cyberattack on French supermarkets last month.
The attack compromised cooling systems at dozens of outlets, affecting major retailers including Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt in Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as Swedish supermarket chains ICA and Coop. IKEA, the Swedish furniture retailer, also reported at least one affected store.
"Everything is destroyed," Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm, told media about the attack that occurred overnight and 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.
Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in sabotage or hybrid warfare operations. "It is not known who is behind this attack, and it may never be determined," said Katrien Eggers, spokesperson for Belgium's Centre for Cybersecurity, adding she was concerned about the growing number of incidents, in part due to artificial intelligence.
"All IT systems are potentially vulnerable, and AI can now be used to successfully exploit these weaknesses - especially by sophisticated actors," she said. From refrigerators and heating systems to security cameras and alarms, an expanding range of devices once largely mechanical can now be monitored and controlled remotely, creating new opportunities for cybercriminals.
At least some of the refrigerator units affected on Monday used temperature control technology from Danish firm Danfoss that was also targeted in the French attack. The firm said it had been working with customers to implement fixes.
The European Commission said the latest incidents highlighted how digital threats are becoming increasingly disruptive across member states. "They are a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers' confidence in it - a warning that we must take seriously," said EU Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen.
"The repeated occurrence of these cyberattacks is deeply concerning." A spokesperson for Colruyt Group, which operates Spar stores in Belgium under a franchise system, said five shops had their fridge systems attacked. In Ireland, wholesaler Musgrave said the incident affected systems in 13 of its SuperValu stores, forcing it to remove some chilled and frozen products from sale.