Hackers have struck supermarket fridges and freezers across Europe for the second time in a month, and this time Ireland is on the list.
Musgrave, which owns SuperValu, confirmed that a “cyber incident” hit refrigeration systems in 13 of its 223 SuperValu stores on Monday, forcing staff to pull chilled and frozen products off the shelves. The company said its monitoring systems raised the alarm and that the problem was limited to one model of fridge unit.
By Tuesday SuperValu said all its stores were back to normal.
Seven countries hit
The attack swept through at least seven countries, hitting Delhaize, Carrefour, Spar and Colruyt in Belgium, ICA and Coop in Sweden, and an IKEA restaurant in Mons. Belgian refrigeration firm Sabcobel said the hackers switched evaporators into defrost mode, letting food warm up and spoil.
It follows an October attack on hundreds of French supermarkets, where temperatures were pushed as high as 50C, melting units and starting fires. Millions of euro worth of food has been thrown out.
Who is behind it?
Nobody has claimed responsibility. Katrien Eggers of Belgium’s Centre for Cybersecurity said it “may never be determined” who did it, and warned that AI is making it easier for sophisticated attackers to find weak spots in everyday systems.
The European Commission said the attack shows how digital threats are now reaching into people’s everyday lives, right down to the frozen peas.
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