Freezer system failures reported at supermarkets in four European countries — Deutsche Welle
On Monday, supermarkets in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Estonia reported failures in their freezer systems. The incidents recalled the situation in France three weeks earlier, when unidentified perpetrators were suspected of remotely switching cooling systems to defrost mode, Deutsche Welle reports.
Failures in Sweden and Benelux
Swedish chains ICA and Coop said the problems affected a limited number of stores. ICA spokesperson Helena Johansson said the company was determining the causes of the incident and its scale. Coop representative Carlos Cancino told AFP that refrigerators and freezers had either stopped working completely or were operating intermittently.
According to him, six of approximately 800 Coop stores in Sweden were affected. At the same time, Cancino said he had received no information confirming a cyberattack.
Dutch chain Ahold Delhaize reported an overnight IT incident that affected freezer equipment at several of its stores in Belgium and Luxembourg. Carrefour, Intermarche and Spar also reported problems. Carrefour’s representative in Belgium, Mich Vergaeuven, called the event a cyberattack.
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Investigation and spoiled products
Belgium’s prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal investigation into the incident. No one has claimed responsibility for it. The disruptions to the systems led to the disposal of spoiled products and again raised concerns about food safety.
An ICA Kvantum store in southern Sweden reported that the temperature in its systems had been remotely raised to 50 degrees Celsius. Jon Billow, head of Sweden’s National Cyber Security Centre, told Reuters that the agency was conducting an investigation.
According to Billow, the country has identified a significant number of network-accessible operational technology devices that require updates or security patches. Such devices include refrigeration and heating equipment, surveillance cameras and alarm networks, which are increasingly controlled remotely.
