Supermarket freezers across Europe struck in second crippling cyberattack — hackers raise temperatures to 50 degrees Celsius in Belgium and Sweden, destroying food stocks
Hackers have struck supermarket chains in Belgium and Sweden, remotely raising freezer temperatures to 50 degrees Celsius, destroying food stocks in a second major cyberattack on European retailers.
Just weeks after a cyberattack destroyed foodstuffs in French supermarket fridges, a similar hack has crippled supermarket chains in Belgium and Sweden, Bloomberg reports. Hackers targeted supermarkets owned by Dutch outfit Ahold Delhaize, as well as ICA and Coop locations in Sweden.
As with the previous attack, hackers remotely raised temperatures in these online-controlled freezers to 50 degrees Celsius, rapidly defrosting their contents and likely destroying millions of dollars worth of items.
Belgian attack details
Belga News Agency reports that the cyberattack targeting refrigeration units at Belgian supermarkets started on Sunday night at around midnight. Sabcobel, a refrigeration fitter in the region, estimates that at least twenty units are affected across Belgium.
The affected supermarket chains include Delhaize, Carrefour, and Spar. Hackers remotely activated the freezer's built-in defrost mode, overriding the temperature and time spent defrosting—the exact same method as the France attack.
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