Fridge temperatures soar in European supermarkets after suspected hack

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Supermarket giants across Europe have warned of a fresh string of cyber attacks as fridge and freezer temperatures have unexpectedly spiked.

An IT incident overnight hit fridges and freezers in dozens of stores across Belgium, Estonia and Luxembourg, retailers Ahold Delhaize, Carrefour and Colruyt said on Monday.

Swedish grocers ICA and Coop, as well as an Ikea superstore also reported similar temperature increases, with one store explicitly blaming a cyber attack.

In Ireland, refrigeration systems at 13 SuperValu stores were also impacted by a suspected cyber attack.

It comes after Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize reported a cyber security incident to police in October after detecting “suspicious activity” in its infrastructure. On Monday, the chain realised there were temperature increases in the cooling systems.

A spokesperson for the company said it is investigating the incident.

The potential attack follows a similar incident in France last month, in which police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, raising temperatures as high as 50°C and causing fires and food losses.

CEO of Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel, Stephan Moelans, which operates Delhaize's systems, said the incident was a cyberattack, in which the units' evaporators were switched to defrost mode. Moelans' office declined to comment when contacted by reporters.

A spokesperson for Colruyt Group, ‌which operates Spar stores in Belgium under a franchise system, said five shops had their fridge systems attacked.

One Swedish ICA store said on social media that the temperature of its refrigerators and freezers had been "hacked" overnight and set to 50°C. It said later that the store had since opened.

At an ICA Baronen store in Stockholm, a notice said all the shop's freezers were broken due to a cyberattack. The store's sales manager said the attack happened at 2 am local time but wasn’t noticed until 5.30 am.

"We’re aware that a limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems," a spokesperson at ICA said over email.

Grocery retail group Coop told local news that ​six of its stores had been affected by similar incidents. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An Estonian supermarket chain was also affected, with temperatures set to 50°C, technology ​supplier Kitman Coldtech told public broadcaster ERR.

"This is very fresh, ‌it happened this morning," Kitman CEO Jann Mutso said. He declined to name the affected grocery chain.

Luc De Laet, founder and owner of Belgian butchery chain De Laet & Van Haver, said he was woken at 3:30 a.m. by an employee telling him there was a problem.

He rushed to his store in Hove, south of Antwerp, and found the fridges turned up as high as 18°C. He said it had ruined some €15,000 worth of meat.

“It's very scary. They are hacking the system that is doing the registration of the temperature, and they can program it at a distance," he told Reuters.

Mr De Laet said he felt the hackers were trying to destabilise European economies, adding that he had contacted police but didn't know if there was an investigation.

He said: “I only have two words for them: wake up, please, because there's something going on.”