Commissioner Hansen says there was an attempt to disrupt food supplies — RMF24

European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen said that suspected cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems in Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland were a deliberate attempt to disrupt food supply chains and undermine shoppers’ trust. According to RMF24, there is currently no threat to the European Union’s food security, although businesses and shoppers have already felt the consequences of the incidents.

Stores in seven countries

In Belgium and Luxembourg, around 40 supermarkets in the Delhaize chain were affected. Disruptions were also recorded at Swedish ICA and Coop stores, Irish SuperValu stores, Finnish K-market stores and an Estonian Selver supermarket.

In the Netherlands, at least 17 companies felt the effects of the incident, including meat-processing plants and small stores. In Ireland, disruptions to refrigeration equipment were recorded at 13 SuperValu stores.

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Equipment was switched to defrost mode

Belgian company Sabcobel, which services refrigeration equipment, said that the perpetrators gained access to the systems and switched the evaporators to defrost mode. In some cases, the temperature inside the equipment may have reached 50 degrees Celsius. Sabcobel head Stéphane Moelans told Le Soir that employees disconnected the attacked units from the power grid during the night and in the morning.

Many stores had to empty refrigerators and freezers and dispose of products unfit for sale. Media reports say that total losses amount to millions of euros. The manager of one Delhaize store in Hoeilaart, Flanders, estimated the value of lost goods at about €100,000, excluding costs caused by the temporary closure of the establishment.

Finland’s National Cyber Security Centre reported several suspicions of successful breaches and limited damage. Following previous attacks in France, services identified several dozen Danfoss refrigeration equipment controllers accessible from the open internet and asked their owners to secure the devices.