Cyber-Attack Overheats Supermarket Freezers in Seven Countries
Dozens of supermarkets in seven European countries had fridges and freezers forced into defrost mode, in what looks like a repeat of last month's French incident.
Fridges and freezers in dozens of supermarkets across seven European countries were hacked overnight and pushed to warm up. The cause appears to be the same weakness exploited in France last month, and a software update alone does not fix it.
A flaw that needs physical work
Sabcobel, a Belgian company that makes some of the affected units, said their evaporators were switched to defrost mode, so the cabinets heated up. The method is believed to match an incident last month that hit hundreds of French supermarkets. Local media reported at the time that food worth millions of euros had to be thrown away.
Sabcobel CEO Stephan Moelans told the Belga news agency that his team worked all night and morning to disconnect affected units from the network. Since the French attack in early October, he said, the firm had tried to protect customers' fridges, but the units need physical modifications as well as software updates.
Many stores can be serviced remotely over the internet. Moelans called managing fridges over a secure internet connection the simplest solution and said most customers moved to it after France.
Scale of the damage
Around 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, and a smaller number of shops in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland. Freezer temperatures in several shops reportedly rose to as high as 50C (122F).
A Delhaize branch in Hoeilaart told Het Laatste Nieuws it lost €100,000 (£83,500) of produce. The manager said that did not include later losses from closing the shop.
Retailers report in
Carrefour said 15 of its Belgian stores were affected and that all shops stayed open. Colruyt Group, which runs Spar stores under a franchise system, said five shops were attacked. Ikea said its Mons store was hit and that it cannot rule out other locations.
In Sweden, ICA said a small number of stores outside its central network were affected. A branch in Sjöbo wrote on social media that its fridges and freezers were hacked overnight and set to 50 degrees. It closed, then reopened. Seven of Coop's 800 Swedish stores were hit, and the company said the situation is contained.
In Ireland, 13 SuperValu stores were hit. Musgrave Group, the chain's owner, called it a cyber incident limited to a specific model of refrigerator. Danfoss told Dutch radio that cooling systems at no fewer than 17 companies in the Netherlands were attacked, including butchers and small neighbourhood shops. Kesko is investigating malfunctions at some K-stores in Finland. A Selver supermarket in Estonia was affected, and other companies there are reported to be too.
Who is looking into it
No one has said who is behind the latest attack. The cyber-security agencies of Belgium and Sweden both say they are keeping watch on it. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre said it is working with international partners and industry to understand the incident, and Britain has had no reports of such cases.
In the US, authorities are investigating refrigeration malfunctions at several American military bases in August. They are working with French officials to check whether those cases are linked.
Our View
Seriousness hinges on a pair of unknowns. First, whether the French, American and European cases share an attacker, which investigators have not said. Second, how fast operators can modify the affected units, since Sabcobel says software updates alone do not close the gap.
Source: BBC News