Supermarket refrigeration cyberattacks across Europe, Digi Mart USA News: Following an incident in France, refrigerators and freezers in supermarkets across several European countries have reportedly been targeted in suspected cyberattacks. According to the source, twelve European countries have reported incidents since Monday, including Germany, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
In Italy, about twenty supermarkets were reportedly affected in Sicily, along with a catering company in Tuscany and a frozen food company in Emilia-Romagna. Four stores operated by the Radenza group, which runs Coop supermarkets in Sicily, were among those affected.
The attackers reportedly remotely triggered defrosting of frozen display cases, which are normally kept at −20 °C.
The result was several dozen kilograms of goods discarded and damage estimated at several thousand euros. The Italian government reportedly said no health risk linked to thawing has been identified.
Four supermarkets were also reportedly affected in Germany and six in Romania, while dozens of stores in Belgium reported refrigeration failures, and the federal prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.
Early technical explanations point to older or poorly protected control systems. In Italy, attackers reportedly accessed remote management systems of refrigeration installations to change storage temperatures.
In Romania, the director of the national cybersecurity agency, Dan Cimpean, reportedly described the exploitation of vulnerabilities affecting industrial controllers exposed to the internet, an operation he described as apparently unsophisticated, with no suspicion of state involvement at this stage.
These findings echo those made in France by the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (Anssi). On October 12, several Intermarché, Leclerc and Système U supermarkets were reportedly victims of a cyberattack, with hundreds of refrigerators targeted, temperatures altered remotely and large quantities of food lost.
Testifying before the Senate on October 21, Anssi director general Vincent Strubel reportedly denounced “basic security failures,” including equipment directly accessible from the internet and weak passwords.
Anssi has reportedly recommended since 2014 that industrial systems not be directly exposed to the internet. The source notes that these attacks show the consequences of intrusions can be concrete, including broken cold chains, destroyed goods and financial losses.
The risk also extends to pharmacies and laboratories, some of whose refrigeration equipment stores vaccines or other health products, and Anssi reportedly engaged with health stakeholders after the French attack.
The European Commission is now calling on the relevant actors to strengthen their preparedness for such incidents. At this stage, neither wave of attacks has been claimed, and no formal link between them has been established.
