Apparent cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration force food disposal across several European countries

Supermarkets in a number of European countries discarded spoiled food after what appear to have been cyberattacks on their refrigeration and freezer equipment, BBC News and the Associated Press, as published by PBS NewsHour, reported.

According to the AP, the problems struck stores in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Estonia on Monday. BBC News listed Ireland, the Netherlands and Finland as additional locations and said Belgium and Luxembourg suffered some of the heaviest damage, with 40 Delhaize outlets hit.

The AP reported that Delhaize called the disruption an "IT incident" involving cooling systems at several dozen locations, most in Belgium and a handful in Luxembourg. Company spokesperson Sarah De Meester said shoppers at those stores would temporarily find fewer fresh and frozen items, but that the chain's warehouses and supply runs were unaffected.

A BBC correspondent visiting a Delhaize store in Hoeilaart, on the outskirts of Brussels, saw frozen pizza, ice cream and other goods piled up for disposal. Staff there estimated the loss at over 100,000 euros, the BBC said.

Carrefour's Belgian operation told the AP the incident had very little impact on its business, with 15 locations hit out of a network exceeding 700.

In Sweden, ICA Group spokesperson Gustaf Nilsson told the news agency TT that "a limited number" of stores experienced trouble overnight, but he did not provide a count. An ICA Kvantum store in the southern town of Sjöbo posted on Facebook that hackers had pushed the temperature in its cooling units to 50 degrees Celsius, and that staff were removing the damaged products. TT reported that the Coop chain saw problems at six of its locations in central Sweden.

Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported that Kitman Coldtech, which produces the equipment involved, said intruders had broken into a computer running one customer's cooling system and set it to 50 degrees Celsius. Chief executive Jann Mutso declined to identify the store, saying staff reacted within minutes and little harm resulted. The Selver chain confirmed that a single outlet was affected, according to the AP.

The AP said the latest disruptions came a month after a similar episode in France, where hackers seized remote control of cooling equipment at hundreds of grocery stores, causing temperatures to climb. Older systems appeared to be the targets in that case, the AP reported.

Neither outlet identified who was responsible.

Compiled by True News from reporting by BBC News and PBS NewsHour. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/702