Hackers target refrigerators in Ireland and European countries in new wave of cyber attacks

Cyber hackers have targeted fridges and freezers in supermarkets in several European countries including Ireland – causing temperatures to increase and food to spoil.

Ireland's ‌third-largest supermarket chain, ​SuperValu, said its refrigeration systems ​limited to a specific ​model ⁠in ⁠13 of ‌its 223 stores ‌had been affected by a cyber ⁠incident.

Chilled ​and ​frozen products have been removed ⁠from ⁠sale, it added.

Sweden's cyber security centre said it was responding to several incidents ​in ICA and Co-op grocery stores, that had caused freezer temperatures to rise sharply overnight on Monday.

Meanwhile, fridges and freezers in dozens of stores across Belgium and ​Luxembourg operated by Ahold Delhaize were also hit by a cyberattack, the Belga news agency reported.

Carrefour said 15 out of its 700 shops in Belgium suffered problems, and five Spar stores operated under the Colruyt Group in the country also had their fridge systems attacked.

IKEA said that one of its outlets in Belgium had been impacted, but it could not rule out more being affected.

Belgium's prosecutor's office has opened a criminal investigation into the wave of attacks targeting supermarkets in the country, a spokesperson said.

Danish ​engineering company Danfoss ​said that 17 outlets in the Netherlands were impacted by the hacking, Dutch news site Nos reported.

An unspecified supermarket chain in Estonia was also affected, with temperatures set to 50C, technology supplier Kitman Coldtech told public broadcaster ERR.

The incidents come less than a month after a similar attack impacted hundreds of supermarkets in France, during which temperatures in some fridges rose to 50C and sparked fires.

Les Mousquetaires, which ⁠owns retailer Intermarche, said that approximately 150 of its stores were affected, with the retail group forced to dispose of all the food.

Last month, Monoprix said that about 5% of its 490 French stores, and Ahold Delhaize also took several systems offline as it contended with a "security issue" in its network.

A European Commission spokesperson said the wave of incidents highlighted the importance of cybersecurity across the bloc.

The EU Food Commissioner said that supply chains should be able to withstand and respond to cyber threats.

Though no one has ​claimed responsibility for the attack, the cases have put a spotlight on rising anxiety among regional
authorities over hybrid attacks spreading from conflicts after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in any sabotage or hybrid warfare operations.

'Everything is destroyed'

On Monday, one Swedish store said in a social media post that the temperature of its refrigerators and freezers had been set to 50C - echoing the incident in France.

At an ICA Baronen store in Stockholm, a notice said all the shop's freezers were broken due to a cyber attack.

Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm said the attack occurred at 2am local time and was first noticed at 5.30am.

"There has been a cyberattack and all our freezers reached 50C," she said.

"Everything is destroyed."

Co-op told Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet that six of its stores had been affected by similar incidents.

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The retailer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sweden's national cyber security centre head John Billow said the agency was investigating the latest incidents.

The CEO of Belgian refrigeration company Sabcobel, Stephan Moelans, which operates Delhaize's systems, confirmed the incident was a cyber attack.

He said the incident unfolded when the units' evaporators were switched to defrost mode.

Luc De Laet, founder and owner of Belgian butchery chain De Laet & Van Haver, said he was woken at 3:30am by an employee telling him there was a problem.

He rushed to his store in Hove, south of Antwerp, and found the fridges turned up as high as 18C - ruining about €15,000 (£12,540) worth of meat.

"It's very scary. They are ⁠hacking the system that is doing the registration of the temperature, and they can program it at
a ​distance," he said.

Advances in technology have meant that devices ranging from refrigerators to heating systems that were manual, can now be controlled and monitored remotely.

This has created new opportunities for cyber criminals.

Tom Hegel, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, said that attacks were usually extortion, politically motivated
or nation-state level operations, with the lack of financial demands ⁠in the recent supermarket cases pointing to sabotage.

"Retail is an easy target because retail chains run enormous estates of refrigeration controllers, building management
systems, ​door access panels and point-of-sale gear," he said.

"Grocery margins are thin and stock perishes within hours, so any disruption hurts quickly ​and in public."

Authorities have not indicated who could have been behind any of these incidents.

(c) Sky News 2026: Hackers target refrigerators in Ireland and European countries in new wave of cyber attacks