Europe's Fridges at Risk: Cyberattacks Turn Them Into Ovens
Press coverage 1 newspapers covered this event: Al-Qabas →
Synchronized cyberattacks targeting refrigeration systems in several European countries have led to food spoilage and rising temperatures, in a sabotage incident for which no one has claimed responsibility yet.
Translated by Qiyas from القبس — Original source
Cooling systems in several European supermarkets were hit by cyberattacks on Monday, causing refrigerators and freezers to overheat and leading to the spoilage of large quantities of food. This wave of attacks comes weeks after a similar assault targeted hundreds of stores in France. Reuters reported that the attacks affected stores in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Estonia, hitting major retail chains in synchronized incidents that raised concerns about the security of operating and remote-control systems in the retail sector.
Regarding the details of the October attack in France, police stated that hackers managed to take control of cooling units in hundreds of large stores, raising temperatures inside refrigerators to levels that reached 50 degrees Celsius in some cases, causing fires and significant food losses. One incident in Belgium revealed the method of intrusion: attackers switched evaporators to defrost mode, a process that raises the temperature of cooling components to melt accumulated ice, causing internal refrigerator temperatures to soar and turning them into something resembling ovens.
These attacks have sparked concerns about the potential scale of economic losses, with estimates suggesting damages could reach hundreds of millions of euros. The simultaneous nature of the incidents in several countries increases the likelihood of organized activity, although a link to a single entity has not been proven. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and Reuters was unable to identify the perpetrators or confirm a connection between the recent incidents and the October attack in France.
In Sweden, John Belov, head of the Swedish National Cyber Security Centre, said authorities were dealing with several incidents affecting stores in the country, noting that a large number of exposed operational technology devices requiring security updates or patches were identified to mitigate hacking risks.
For his part, Tom Hegel, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, suggested that the absence of financial demands in the recent incidents may indicate deliberate sabotage rather than traditional cyber-extortion attacks.
These incidents highlight the growing risks of connecting supermarket cooling systems and operational infrastructure to the internet. Hacking remote-control devices is no longer just a threat to data and digital systems; it can now cause direct physical damage, destroy food inventory, and result in operational and economic losses within hours.
