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Dozens of supermarkets in seven countries were hit by refrigeration failures believed to be caused by a cyber attack. It is believed that the same method was used as in the attack on supermarkets in France two weeks ago. The new incident affected about 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as a number of stores in Sweden, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Estonia.
Stephane Moulans, CEO of Sabcobel, which maintains Delhaize systems, told news agency Belga that there had been a cyber attack that resulted in evaporators in refrigeration units being switched to defrost mode. Employees "worked throughout the night and morning to take the affected devices offline."
After the cyberattack on refrigerators in France, he said, the company took steps to “protect customers' refrigeration equipment from this vulnerability,” but this required not just software updates, but physical modifications to the devices.
“The simplest solution is to control refrigerators via a secure Internet connection. Most of our clients switched to this method after the incident in France,” he added.
Representatives of Delhaize in the commune of Huilart in Belgian Flanders told news portal Het Laatste Nieuws that they lost €100,000 worth of food.
A representative of the Colruyt Group, which operates franchised Spar stores in Belgium, reported cyber attacks on the refrigeration systems of five stores. The Carrefour supermarket chain said the incident affected 15 stores.
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Swedish grocery chains ICA and Coop reported similar temperature spikes. Representatives of one of the stores of the ICA chain, located in the city of Shobu in southern Sweden, wrote on social networks that during the night “hackers” changed the settings of refrigerators and freezers, setting the temperature at 50 degrees Celsius. The store was closed for some time, but then reopened to customers.
An ICA spokesman confirmed that the incident affected "a small number of ICA stores operating outside the company's central network."
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“ICA is currently supporting affected stores to resolve the situation,” the company said.
In Sweden, seven of the 800 Coop stores were also affected, however, as company representatives told the BBC, “the situation is localized and under control.”
In Ireland, 13 SuperValu supermarkets were affected. A spokesman for the Musgrave Group, which owns the network, confirmed to the Irish Times that the “cyber incident” affected the cooling systems, adding that the problem only affected a “certain model” of refrigeration equipment.
In the Netherlands, the cooling and freezing systems of at least 17 companies were subjected to a cyber attack. Those affected included butchers and small convenience stores.
Пострадал также как минимум один магазин в Эстонии, принадлежащий сети Selver. Хакеры установили температуру +50 градусов в одной из витрин-холодильников. According to the Postimees portal, the cyber attack was stopped in about ten minutes, and the store’s goods and customers were not harmed. At the same time, the Err portal quotes Jann Mutso, head of Kitman Coldtech, a company that produces and services refrigeration systems, who said that this is not the only cyber attack in Estonia.
“We don’t know all the details yet, but other clients, not just ours, were attacked in Estonia. Сегодня утром», — сказал он.
In mid-October, a cyberattack on refrigerators occurred in France and affected more than 100 Coopérative U supermarkets, as well as 180 stores of the Intermarché chain and its Netto brand. Это привело к порче продуктов на миллионы евро. Кибератака произошла в ночь на понедельник, 12 октября.
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