GCHQ confirms British meat suppliers' fridges heated up overnight after hackers hit supermarket freezers across Europe
From the Newshound archive · first published 3 November 2026 · last updated 4 November 2026.
Empty refrigerated counters cordoned off inside an Auchan supermarket in Olsztyn, Poland, as the National Cyber Security Centre confirmed "a couple of impacts" in the UK food supply chain from the attack wave.Dr Richard Horne, chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, warned that AI had allowed Britain's adversaries to easily find and exploit vulnerabilities in refrigeration systems, as hackers spread freezer attacks from France across six more European countries.
British meat processing firms were caught up in a European-wide refrigeration cyberattack after hackers exploited vulnerable fridge software shared with continental suppliers. GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre director of operations Paul Chichester confirmed awareness of UK impacts at Tuesday's annual report launch, saying teams had worked through the night alerting vulnerable organisations. The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers said a few of its roughly 300 members had their fridge units heat up overnight, though empty abattoir units meant no meat was lost.
Cybersecurity experts say attacks on decoy fridge controls showed characteristics linked to previous Russian operations.
The French fridge supplier Danfoss, whose legacy technology was exploited in October's attack, also works with Tesco and Sainsbury's.
NCSC chief Dr Richard Horne warned the incidents may represent only the 'foothills' of a wider threat to Britain's food supply chain.
