Several supermarket chains in Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden reported disruptions to refrigeration systems on Monday, November 2, after temperatures rose unexpectedly in stores. Some retailers had to discard fresh and frozen products as a result.
The incident resembles a cyberattack that affected hundreds of French supermarkets during the night of October 11 to 12. In Belgium, refrigeration specialist Sabcobel director Stephan Moelans told Belga that attackers remotely activated the defrost cycle on evaporators, a process normally used to melt accumulated ice.
According to RTL Info, the disruption affected around 40 Delhaize stores, 15 Carrefour locations, approximately 15 Intermarché stores and five Spar outlets. The Ikea store in Mons, the De Laet and Van Haver butchers, and chocolatier Galler were also reportedly affected. Ahold Delhaize said several dozen supermarkets had been disrupted, including locations in Luxembourg.
Swedish retailer ICA told Reuters that a limited part of its network was affected, while Coop reported similar difficulties. The overall number of affected stores and the financial impact remain unclear. Delhaize has described the incident as an IT issue and is investigating, while Carrefour said it was trying to determine what happened.
Other countries have also reported cases. Estonia’s Selver confirmed to public broadcaster ERR that one store had been targeted. Its supplier, Kitman Coldtech, said an attacker had set a freezer to 50 degrees Celsius, but a rapid response limited the temperature increase to two or three degrees and prevented product losses.
In Ireland, Musgrave acknowledged a limited incident involving a specific refrigerator model in its SuperValu supermarkets. The Irish Times reported that 13 stores removed fresh and frozen products from their shelves, although none had to close. Disruptions have also been mentioned in the Netherlands, without further details so far.
Sources: Numerama.