Cyberattack on Supermarket Fridges Spreads Across Europe

Hackers struck refrigeration and freezer systems at dozens of European supermarkets on Monday, forcing shops to throw away large amounts of food. Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, along with Swedish grocers ICA and Coop. Carrefour said 15 of its 700 Belgian stores were hit, and Coop said 7 of its 800 outlets had their cooling tampered with. IKEA confirmed one Belgian store was affected, and Irish wholesaler Musgrave said 13 SuperValu stores had to pull some chilled and frozen goods.

Freezers Reached 50 Degrees Celsius

An ICA franchise manager in Stockholm said the attack happened around 2 a.m. but was noticed hours later, by which point the freezers had climbed to 50 degrees Celsius. A Belgian butcher found his fridges set to 18 degrees and estimated the damage to his meat at about €15,000.

Danfoss Technology and Sabotage Concerns

Some of the affected units used temperature control technology from Danish firm Danfoss, which was also targeted in last month’s attack in France, where hackers took over cooling at hundreds of stores. Danfoss says it is working with customers on fixes. No group has claimed responsibility, and SentinelOne researcher Tom Hegel said the lack of ransom demands points toward sabotage.

Official Reaction in Europe

Belgium’s Centre for Cybersecurity said the culprit may never be identified and warned that AI is helping skilled attackers exploit weak systems.