Suspected cyberattacks on refrigeration systems spread across Europe

Suspected cyberattacks targeting refrigeration systems have affected food businesses across Europe, with Germany, Greece, and Italy reporting incidents Tuesday following disruptions in eight other countries a day earlier.

Hackers allegedly manipulated temperature controls, causing food losses by switching refrigeration equipment to heating or defrost mode.

Germany

Hackers switched refrigeration systems from cooling to heating at supermarkets across North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria overnight, broadcaster Tagesschau reported Tuesday.

Large quantities of food had to be discarded.

A regional manager at the Workers’ Welfare Association, which operates affected CAP supermarkets, confirmed one attack to the German Press Agency.

Refrigerated shelves and external storage areas were affected. The attack reportedly targeted the company responsible for remotely maintaining the systems.

Police in Lower Bavaria were also investigating an incident at an Edeka branch in Reisbach on suspicion of data espionage and data manipulation.

Greece

A butcher shop in Athens’ Kifisia district reported that hackers accessed its refrigeration control system and set the temperature to 150C (302F), according to the daily Capital.

“They had set the refrigerators to 150 degrees Celsius, we could not manually intervene as we could not access the system,” owner Giorgos Boumpas said.

A technician restored control after two hours and reported similar incidents at two nearby businesses, Boumpas added. The shop subsequently disabled its Wi-Fi connection.

Italy

Italian authorities launched an investigation after supermarket refrigeration disruptions caused food to spoil, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Conad confirmed five affected stores, including two in Veneto and three in Sicily. Technical teams intervened to prevent significant losses.

Following talks with intelligence officials and the National Cybersecurity Agency, the government said the impact had been limited.

Some stores continued using outdated equipment with vulnerabilities, it said. Italy’s Postal Police opened an investigation.

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Source of information: Global News Agencies including REUTERS / TASS / AFP / ANADOLU / INT.RU / Al Jazeera / CNN