EU urges action as Germany, Romania and UK report supermarket cyberattacks

The announcements on Tuesday came as the European Union promised a collective response, warning that the attacks, which have spoiled tonnes of food across the continent, were "not isolated". Problems were reported in at least nine EU countries on Monday: Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.

Unknown motive

The motive for the cyberattacks is unknown, and no one has claimed responsibility. A Romanian official said he did not suspect a state actor.

Widespread impact

On Tuesday, officials and company representatives said four supermarkets in Germany and six in Romania were affected. The UK, which is not in the EU, was also hit. Belgium was among the hardest-hit countries on Monday, with dozens of stores across several grocery chains reporting refrigeration failures. Federal prosecutors there have opened an investigation.

In Italy, about 20 supermarkets were affected. Giuseppe Spadaro, director of a group that runs Coop supermarkets in Sicily, said four of its 300 stores were hit, causing thousands of euros in damage.

Response measures

Thomas Regnier, a spokesperson for the EU, said the bloc's agencies were talking with national authorities to develop a joint response. "These are not isolated incidents, and of course, we have to be collectively resilient and prepared for such cyber incidents," he said.

In Sweden, the supermarket chain Coop said that refrigerators and freezers affected overnight at seven of its stores had been connected to "old 4G networks". The chain had accelerated an upgrade to move its connected refrigeration equipment onto 5G networks and modern modems.

Frank Groenewegen, a cybersecurity expert at Deloitte in The Hague, urged retailers to check whether their refrigeration controllers were connected to the internet and running the latest security updates. "And if they don't even know, then remove them from the public internet immediately," he told Reuters.