EU urges action as supermarket cyberattacks spread
Hackers raised supermarket refrigeration temperatures in Germany, Romania and the United Kingdom, adding to attacks reported across Europe. EU spokesperson…
EU spokesperson Thomas Regnier said on Tuesday the bloc’s agencies were working with national authorities after hackers raised supermarket refrigeration temperatures in Germany, Romania and the United Kingdom during Monday’s cyberattacks. The incidents added to a wave affecting at least 11 European countries.
Food spoiled in attacks across the continent, while officials warned that the incidents were not isolated. The motive remains unknown, and no one has claimed responsibility.
Four supermarkets in Germany and six in Romania were affected, officials and company representatives said on Tuesday. The United Kingdom was also hit, though it is not part of the European Union.
Why is the EU urging a joint response?
The attacks have crossed national borders and disrupted food retailers, prompting EU agencies to coordinate with national authorities. Regnier said the bloc was working to develop a collective response.
“These are not isolated incidents, and of course, we have to be collectively resilient and prepared for such cyber incidents,” Regnier said.
He declined to identify possible perpetrators. Romanian cybersecurity chief Dan Cimpean also said he did not believe a state actor was behind the attacks. “It seems semi-amateurish,” said Cimpean, director of Romania’s National Cyber Security Directorate.
“We do not suspect, under any circumstances, that it is a state actor,” he said, adding that no other infrastructure had been compromised.
Refrigeration failures hit stores across Europe
At least nine EU countries reported problems on Monday: Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden. The new reports from Germany and Romania brought the affected-country count to at least 11, alongside the UK.
Belgium was among the hardest hit. Dozens of stores across several grocery chains reported refrigeration failures, and federal prosecutors opened an investigation.
In Italy, about 20 supermarkets were affected. Four of the 300 stores run by a Coop supermarket group in Sicily were hit, causing thousands of euros in damage, said group director Giuseppe Spadaro.
“We had to throw away everything. The shelves are empty,” Spadaro said.
Italy’s government held talks on Tuesday with intelligence service heads and the National Cybersecurity Agency. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office described the impact as “limited” and said relevant institutions remained on high alert.
The UK attacks targeted small meat-processing firms, but their impact was minimal, said Richard Horne, chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre. He said the issue touched “the whole food supply chain” and cited a couple of cases where “vulnerable technology had been exploited”.
What are retailers doing to protect refrigeration systems?
Swedish chain Coop said refrigerators and freezers at seven stores were affected overnight. The equipment had been connected to “old 4G networks”; the stores have since returned to normal operations.
Coop spokesperson Carlos Cancinos said the company had accelerated an upgrade that began after the October attacks. The work moves connected refrigeration equipment to 5G networks and modern modems.
“This helps to solve a large share of problems of this kind,” Cancinos said.
The latest wave followed a cyberattack that affected hundreds of supermarkets across France in October and stores in other European countries. Danish refrigeration-controls maker Danfoss said its systems were again among those targeted. The company had been in close contact with customers for the past three weeks and recommended that its systems not be directly accessible from the internet.
For shoppers, compromised cooling can mean spoiled stock and empty shelves, as the Sicily stores experienced. The disruption also shows why access to refrigeration controls matters beyond a single supermarket: failures can reach food suppliers and processing firms across the supply chain.
