Cyberattacks disrupt supermarket refrigeration across Europe

Overnight into Monday, 2 November, attackers remotely altered refrigeration controls at supermarkets across several European countries, causing fridges and freezers to heat up or operate at abnormally high temperatures. The Hacker News reports that Belgium, Sweden, Estonia and other states were affected, with “several dozen” stores initially noted as impacted, though the precise tally varied by retailer.

Company statements described the incidents in terms of refrigeration IT faults or cyberattacks; in Belgium, Sabcobel’s chief executive said defrost cycles were exploited to raise temperatures, while in Estonia an older Danfoss system was targeted, and in Sweden some stores reported fridges set to 50°C. ICA in Sweden and Kesko in Finland reported affected equipment but did not always confirm a cyberattack, and several retailers attributed issues to refrigeration-control vendors rather than intent to damage.

Danfoss appears frequently in the reporting as a common equipment maker among affected sites, with CERT-FR and other national bodies noting vulnerabilities in AK-SM/AK-SC controllers and related xweb products. The Dutch and Belgian incidents were linked by some to shared methods, though officials warned that attribution remained uncertain and may never be clear.

Affected chains include Delhaize, Carrefour, Intermarché, Spar (Colruyt Group), IKEA, ICA, Selver, and Musgrave’s SuperValu, with store-level impacts ranging from temporarily limited ranges of chilled goods to outright spoilage in some Belgian cases. CERT-FR’s guidance on mitigations for Danfoss and Copeland devices, and Sweden’s NC3 and Estonia’s updates, emphasised securing network access, updating firmware, and restoring control via protected networks rather than public Internet access.