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Freezers in Sweden, Belgium overheat following possible cyberattacks

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

European grocery retailers are responding to suspected cyberattacks that forced refrigeration equipment to overheat in Sweden, Belgium, and Luxembourg. In Sweden, national cybersecurity officials are actively investigating disruptions at retailers ICA and Coop, with at least one location matching the exact high-temperature setting seen in an earlier French breach. Meanwhile, dozens of Ahold Delhaize supermarkets suffered overnight cooling failures, which refrigeration contractor Sabcobel attributed directly to hackers. Ahold Delhaize is treating the event as an IT incident, following an earlier cybersecurity complaint filed with Dutch police last month.

Key points

  • National cybersecurity officials in Sweden have launched responses to counter the coordin…: National cybersecurity officials in Sweden have launched responses to counter the coordinated supermarket cooling disruptions.
  • At least one Swedish store saw cooling equipment adjusted to the identical temperature se…: At least one Swedish store saw cooling equipment adjusted to the identical temperature setting recorded during the French incident.
  • The incidents follow an earlier cybersecurity issue that retailer Ahold Delhaize reported…: The incidents follow an earlier cybersecurity issue that retailer Ahold Delhaize reported to Dutch police last month.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Temperature increases have been reported in dozens of store cooling systems, weeks after a similar attack in France.

Possible cyberattacks have triggered rising temperatures in grocery store refrigeration systems across Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The head of Sweden’s national cybersecurity centre, John Billow, confirmed on Monday to the Reuters news agency that the centre is responding to multiple incidents affecting store cooling systems.

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The temperature of freezers at several Swedish stores rose suddenly overnight, store operators ICA and Coop said.

Meanwhile, the Belga news agency reported overnight temperature increases at dozens of Ahold Delhaize stores in Belgium and Luxembourg, which were blamed on a cyberattack, quoting refrigeration company Sabcobel’s chief executive Stephan Moelans.

A spokesperson for the supermarket chain earlier said an…

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