Police in Germany are investigating several cases in which supermarket refrigeration systems may have been compromised remotely. In affected stores, temperatures reportedly rose high enough to spoil food, forcing businesses to dispose of products. The incidents follow similar cases reported in other European countries in recent days.
In Wuppertal and Wetter, police said refrigeration systems were apparently disabled in a cyberattack. A store in Wetter-Volmarstein, run by the Workers’ Welfare Association, said the intrusion targeted the company that remotely maintains its cooling equipment, and large quantities of food had to be thrown away. Police also reported extensive spoilage at a Wuppertal store after the systems’ temperature settings were apparently raised remotely. The incident was noticed on the morning of November 2 after occurring over the weekend.
In Raesfeld, in the Münsterland region, refrigeration also failed, and investigators are examining whether a cyberattack caused the disruption. In Lilienthal, near Bremen, a supermarket’s cold chain was temporarily interrupted overnight on November 2. Owner Daniel Breiding said the store had to discard goods worth more than €360,000. Service counters, cold-storage rooms and freezers stopped working, and the equipment reportedly reached 30 degrees Celsius.
Similar incidents have been reported in Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, Luxembourg, Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands. A Belgian refrigeration service provider said systems had been switched remotely into defrost mode. A separate large-scale attack in mid-October affected stores belonging to several major French grocery chains and targeted a technology service provider.
Germany’s Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger called for stronger protection of digital systems used in buildings and business operations. The European Commission has also convened two crisis meetings to exchange information and coordinate next steps. National authorities are investigating, and the identity of those behind the attacks remains unknown.
Sources: t3n.