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A suspected cyberattack hit grocery stores across at least eleven European countries on Monday, prompting the European Union to warn of a deliberate attempt to disrupt the bloc's food supply chain.
Supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Romania, and Sweden reported refrigeration problems that forced some retailers to discard food after temperatures rose overnight.
The incident came three weeks after a cyberattack disrupted French grocery stores and forced hundreds of outlets to throw away spoiled stock.
No one has claimed responsibility for either incident.
EU Food and Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen said the bloc was taking the incidents “very seriously.”
"They are a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers' confidence in it, a warning that we must take seriously," he said.
In Italy, at least four Coop supermarkets in Sicily and one business in Tuscany were affected, according to media reports and the national cybersecurity agency.
The Italian government held talks with intelligence chiefs and the National Cyber Security Agency on Tuesday.
"The attack happened at 4:00 am (03:00 a.m. GMT)," Giuseppe Spadaro, head of the Radenza Group, which manages Coop-branded supermarkets, told Italian news agency ANSA.
The attack targeted "the remote-control system for frozen food sections" and had since been resolved, he added.
Belgium was among the hardest-hit countries, with dozens of stores across several grocery chains reporting refrigeration failures. Federal prosecutors opened an investigation.
"It's a cyberattack; there is no other reason," said Mich Vergauwen, a spokesperson for Carrefour Belgium, which reported disruption in about 15 of its 700 stores.
Ikea said its Mons outlet also experienced a cyberattack that caused freezer temperatures to rise.
Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel said it had begun securing its installations after the October attack in France, but some systems had yet to be upgraded and were among those affected on Monday.
Delhaize, Colruyt and Intermarche also reported refrigeration problems at stores in Belgium, while four Delhaize outlets in Luxembourg were affected.
In Ireland, retailer Musgrave said 13 Supervalu stores were impacted by what it described as a cyber incident.
A small number of corner shops in the Netherlands also suffered disruptions.
In Portugal, the Mosqueteiros group confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) incidents at seven Intermarche stores linked to a cyberattack, which "appears to have targeted an external service provider responsible for managing the refrigeration systems.”
In Sweden, Coop confirmed seven of its around 800 stores had been hit.
"We can confirm that it is a cyber incident. The problem has now been resolved and the fridges and freezers are working as normal," spokesperson Carlos Cancino told AFP.
He said Coop did not know who was behind the attack, but noted that the affected stores had been connected to a 4G mobile network, not the updated 5G system, which made them "more exposed" to hackers.
Swedish chain Ica also said "a limited number" of its stores experienced refrigeration problems, without confirming a cyberattack.
According to Ica spokesperson Helena Johansson, the affected stores were all connected to an external refrigeration control system provided by Danish manufacturer Danfoss, the same supplier targeted in the Oct. 12 cyberattack on French retailers.
She referred all queries to Danfoss, which had yet to respond to an AFP request for a comment.
In Finland, irregular temperatures were also detected in a few smaller grocery stores belonging to the Kesko group.
"We are currently investigating the cause, and interference via the network has not yet been ruled out," Petri Kayhko, head of Kesko's corporate security, told AFP.
Roni Kokkola, an information security specialist at the National Cyber Security Center at Finland's Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, would not rule out cyber interference.
"We've seen this in Europe in the past few months, so it spreading beyond France to other countries has been expected," he told AFP.
"Nowadays, it's very typical that all kinds of vulnerabilities are being exploited ever more actively and rapidly."
In Estonia, at least one supermarket was attacked by hackers who raised the temperature in the refrigeration units to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), public broadcaster ERR reported.
The units were older models delivered by Danfoss, similar to the ones targeted in the France attack, Jann Mutso, director of Kitman Coldtech, a manufacturer and distributor of advanced refrigeration systems, told ERR.
Four supermarket outlets were affected in Germany and six in Romania, officials and company representatives said on Tuesday.
“It seems semi-amateurish. We do not suspect, under any circumstances, that it is a state actor,” Dan Cimpean, director of Romania’s National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC), told AFP.
A day after the attacks, Richard Horne, chief executive of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), warned Tuesday that the United Kingdom is at risk of “an unprecedented rise in ... cyber incidents” over the coming months.
He said failure to invest in the right technology to address such rising threats will result in leaders having to explain themselves, in particular “when food isn’t on the shelves, when lights aren’t on (and) businesses have gone under.”
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