A group of grocery stores in Europe confirmed on Monday that their refrigerators had been subjected to a cyber attack, with the temperature suddenly rising in the refrigeration units they use. France was the target of similar attacks three weeks ago. European Union Commissioner for Food and Agriculture Christoph Hansen warned earlier that food security “requires greater attention at all levels,” and that targeting it has become a reality.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 19:43

The temperature rose Monday inside the refrigeration units of grocery stores in at least seven European countries, while a number of these stores confirmed that they had been subjected to a cyber attack similar to what happened in France three weeks ago.

The latest attack attributed to hackers affected stores in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden. Stores were forced to throw away food that was spoiled or at risk of spoilage.

The largest retail companies in France announced on October 12 that hundreds of refrigeration systems in their stores had been subjected to a cyber attack, forcing them to throw away large quantities of food, and raising concerns about food security. No group has claimed responsibility for last month's attack or the attacks that occurred Monday.

"It's a cyber attack"

The Carrefour chain in Belgium announced a disturbance in about 15 of its 700 stores across the country. Carrefour Belgium spokesman Mich Verguin said, "It is a cyber attack. There is no other reason."

An IKEA Belgium spokeswoman also said that a cyber attack targeted the chain's branch in Mons, in the southwest of the country, which led to a sudden rise in refrigerator temperatures in the early hours of the morning.

Read also: From refrigerators to cars... How can hackers hack devices connected to the Internet?

Retail chains Delhaize, Colruyt and Intermarche also reported that the cooling systems in their stores were affected by technical problems. Delhaize announced that four of its stores in Luxembourg were also affected.

The Belgian group "Sabcobel", which specializes in industrial cooling systems, said that it began securing its facilities after the attack in France, but about 10% of the systems had not yet been updated, and some of them were in the affected stores on Monday.

"If SABC had not initiated this process, the impact would have been much greater," said CEO Stephan Molins.

Musgrave Group, which owns the Super Value chain in Ireland, announced that 13 of its stores were damaged. A limited number of small stores in the Netherlands were also affected. In Sweden, the Cobb chain confirmed that six of its nearly 800 stores had been subjected to a cyber attack on Monday morning.

Its spokesman, Carlos Cansino, said: “We confirm that it is a cyber incident. The problem has now been resolved and the refrigerators and freezers have returned to operating normally.”

He added that the company does not know who was responsible for the attack, but pointed out that the affected stores were connected to the fourth generation (4G) communications network and not to the updated fifth generation (5G) system, which made them “more vulnerable” to hacking.

"Set the temperature to 50°C"

The Swedish "Ika" chain also reported that a "limited number" of its stores faced problems with cooling systems, but it was unable to confirm that they were caused by a cyber attack.

According to company spokeswoman Helena Johansson, all the affected stores were connected to an external refrigeration control system provided by the Danish company Danfoss, the same company whose system was targeted in the cyber attack that targeted French stores last month.

One of the "Ika" stores in the city of Šoppo in southern Sweden posted on Facebook that its refrigerators and freezers "were hacked and the temperature was set to 50 degrees Celsius." In Finland, abnormal temperatures were also observed in a number of small grocery stores belonging to the Kesco group.

"We are currently investigating the cause, and the possibility of network interference has not yet been ruled out," said Petri Kayhko, the group's head of corporate security.

For his part, Ronnie Kokkola, an information security specialist at the National Cybersecurity Center of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency "Traficom", did not rule out the hypothesis of electronic interference in Finland.

Read also: An “unprecedented” cyber attack targeting the cooling systems of French supermarket chains, with losses estimated at millions

He said, "We have witnessed similar cases in Europe during the past few months, so it was expected that the matter would extend to other countries outside France," adding, "It has become common today to exploit various types of vulnerabilities at an increasing and rapid pace."

In Estonia, at least one store was subjected to a cyber attack that raised the temperature of refrigeration units to 50 degrees Celsius, according to public broadcaster ERR.

Jan Mutsu, director of Keetman Coldtech, a manufacturer and distributor of advanced cooling systems, said the targeted units were old models produced by Danfoss, similar to those targeted in last month's attack.

Following the attack in the sector in France, Danfoss explained that most of the damaged equipment was old products that “no longer receive software or security updates.”

The European Union Commissioner for Food and Agriculture, Christoph Hansen, had warned that food security “requires greater attention at all levels,” and that targeting it has become a reality.

France 24/AFP

Keywords related to the article

The content you want to browse is no longer in service or is currently unavailable.