Cyber attacks on supermarket freezers spread from Europe to UK meat suppliers, with one fridge heating up to 100C
Empty refrigerated counters inside an Auchan supermarket in Olsztyn, Poland, as Sweden's national cyber-security centre confirmed it was working multiple cases simultaneously following the overnight attacks.Seven European countries were struck overnight by hackers who remotely cranked supermarket freezer temperatures to 50C, following an almost identical attack on up to 700 French supermarkets last month that triggered fires and food losses running into tens of millions of euros.
Hackers exploited vulnerabilities in remotely managed refrigeration software to force temperatures up inside supermarket freezers across seven European countries — Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden — before UK meat suppliers were caught up as "collateral" the following day. The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers confirmed that a number of its roughly 300 members had fridges heat up overnight on Monday, with no food lost because abattoir units were empty at the time.
Cybersecurity experts warned the incidents may represent only the 'foothills' of a wider threat, with attack patterns resembling previous operations linked to Russia.
NCSC chief executive Richard Horne said the agency "worked through the night" to warn British businesses, adding that years of underinvestment had left essential refrigeration technology dangerously exposed.
The attacks follow a similar hack that targeted hundreds of French supermarkets the previous month, causing millions of euros in damage after criminals gained access through fridges running legacy, internet-connected technology secured by nothing more than default passwords.
