European supermarket groups reported on Monday that refrigeration and freezer systems at stores across the continent had been remotely overridden, raising temperatures and forcing food to be discarded.
Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt in Belgium and Luxembourg, ICA and Coop in Sweden, Carrefour in Belgium and SuperValu in Ireland were among the chains affected, according to the retailers and reports from Reuters, BBC and the Guardian. Staff at some locations said freezers had been set to 50 degrees Celsius. A Belgian company that operates some of the systems said the units’ evaporators had been switched to defrost mode.
No group has claimed responsibility. Public statements on Monday did not confirm the total number of stores affected, the precise value of food lost in the new wave, or the identity of those responsible.
The attacks follow an October incident in which hundreds of French supermarkets, including Intermarché, Coopérative U and Carrefour, reported refrigeration systems forced to high temperatures, spoiling food and, in some cases, causing fires. France’s cybersecurity agency ANSSI and the Paris prosecutor’s office opened inquiries; no claim of responsibility was made then either.
European Union food and agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen said the repeated incidents were “a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers’ confidence in it.” Wires noted that some of the controllers involved in both waves were made by Danish firm Danfoss and that the company had previously said many affected units were running outdated firmware or had reached end of life.
SOURCES: Reuters, BBC, The Guardian, CBC News, ANSSI.
