Grocery freezers in Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg may have been hacked
Hackers may have once again caused supermarket retailers in Europe to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars by manipulating freezer temperatures.
According to The Guardian, refrigerators, freezers and chilled cabinets at dozens of supermarkets across Belgium, Sweden and Luxembourg experienced extreme changes in temperature in the late evening and early morning hours of Nov. 1-2. Temperatures reportedly went as low as roughly -17 degrees Fahrenheit and higher than 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
Stores from chains including Ahold Delhaize, Spar, ICA, Coop, Intermarche, Coopérative U, Carrefour, Shop & Go, Leclerc and Monoprix were affected, with losses in damaged fresh, frozen and dairy products exceeding $145,000 at some individual stores.
While law enforcement has not yet determined if a cyberattack caused these incidents, they are similar to an October security incident that caused roughly 350 supermarkets in France to have their freezers and refrigerators to heat up, and in some cases, catch fire, leading to millions of dollars in losses due to defrosted and perished food.
[READ MORE: Cyberattack on French grocery freezers causes spoilage, fires]
So far, no group has publicly taken responsibility or asked for any type of ransom in connection to the French attack, which reportedly mostly targeted Internet-connected cooling systems provided by Danish software firm Danfoss, as well as some from Copeland and Dixell.
It is not currently known whether any of the affected cooling units used Danfoss software. However, in a statement quoted by NBC News following the Oct. 12 incident, Danfoss said many of the affected units were at the end of their life and/or running outdated firmware, and that affected grocers had been warned to migrate and update outdated systems. In addition, in August a security weakness in a Danfoss software platform had been identified and patched.
Ken Munro, partner at U.K. cybersecurity firm Pen Test Partners, told NBC News in October that the ease of which the French cooling system software could be hacked and the lack of monetary demands suggests this may have been more of a prank than a coordinated criminal effort.
The latest incidents are currently being investigated and there has been no official confirmation that they were caused by malicious actors. Also, no group has so far publicly claimed responsibility or asked for payment related to the freezer malfunctions.
Ahold Delhaize USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize, had the e-commerce sites and apps of its five grocery banners down for about a week following a cyberattack.
This is a developing story and Chain Store Age will continue providing updates.
