Cyberattack on supermarket fridges: Belgium, Luxembourg and across Europe affected
Dozens of supermarkets across Europe, including Delhaize stores in Belgium and Luxembourg, have suffered a cyberattack targeting their refrigeration systems. The Belgian federal prosecutor's office has opened an investigation.
Refrigerators heated to 70°C: cyberattack strikes European supermarkets
Dozens of supermarkets across Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Estonia, the Netherlands and Ireland reported an abnormal rise in temperature in their refrigerators and freezers during the night of Sunday to Monday, according to fr.euronews.com. The incident is widely being described as a cyberattack, similar to one that had targeted French retailers in early October.
The matter came to light when Belgian media revealed that some refrigerators had been set to 70 degrees Celsius, resulting in the disposal of food worth several hundred thousand euros. Belgium's Cyber Security Centre (CCB) confirmed to news agency Belga that it was aware of an incident. Its spokesperson, Katrien Eggers, stated: "We are aware of an incident, but we do not have additional information." The CCB also noted that the number of cyberattacks is increasing rapidly due to artificial intelligence.
Delhaize, Carrefour, IKEA: a wide range of retailers affected
In Belgium, according to newspaper Le Soir, around 40 Delhaize Proxy supermarkets, 15 Carrefour Shop & Go stores, 15 Intermarché shops and five Spar Q8 petrol stations were reportedly affected. The De Laet and Van Haver butchery group reported that its refrigerators had also been affected. The IKEA Bergen store in Mons was also impacted.
A Delhaize spokesperson told Euronews: "We have identified an IT incident affecting refrigeration systems in several dozen stores. We have immediately taken the necessary measures to keep our stores operational."
Carrefour, for its part, stated that the impact remained "very limited": 15 of its 700 stores are affected, in both Flanders and Wallonia, with no hypermarkets involved. "All stores remain open because this only affects a few refrigeration units, mainly freezers," the retailer added. Carrefour's Belgian spokesperson, Mich Vergauwen, was direct: "This is a cyberattack, there is no other reason."
Luxembourg takes preventive measures
In the Grand Duchy, Delhaize suspended its ordering systems as a precautionary measure to avoid an incident similar to the one that occurred in Belgium.
The mechanism of the attack explained
Stephan Moelans, CEO of Sabcobel, the refrigeration installer that manages Delhaize's refrigeration and freezing systems, explained to Belga that the attack is based on the same mechanism as the one that occurred in France. The incident occurred when the evaporators of the units were switched to defrost mode. Moelans clarified that a simple software update is not sufficient to correct the vulnerability: physical modifications are necessary. "The simplest solution is to manage refrigerators via a secure internet connection. Most of our clients switched to this after the French attack," he added. Sabcobel identified around twenty affected units among the hundreds it manages in Belgium.
Danfoss, the company that supplied the software for the refrigeration systems targeted in this attack as well as in the French incident in October, attributed responsibility to its clients for not updating their software. A spokesperson told VTM NIEUWS that "the vulnerability is mainly found in obsolete software" and that the company had already urged its clients to adopt its new version.
The identity of the attackers remains unknown for now. The Belgian federal prosecutor's office announced the opening of an investigation.
Incidents reported in several other European countries
In Ireland, 13 SuperValu stores were hit by a presumed cyberattack, according to a statement from their owner, Musgrave. In Sweden, several supermarkets of the ICA chain were reportedly also affected overnight. In Estonia, only one Selver supermarket was affected according to local media. In the Netherlands, the freezing and cooling systems of at least 17 companies were attacked, according to a Danfoss spokesperson, without their identity being disclosed. Finnish media also reported that several supermarkets of the K group, one of the country's largest retail chains, experienced similar problems.
These incidents follow a comparable attack in France on 12 October, when hundreds of supermarkets belonging to the Intermarché and Coopérative U chains fell victim to a cyberattack targeting their refrigeration systems.
Source: Le Quotidien