European Grocery Disruptions: Hackers Target Cold Chains Again

European grocery chains face a renewed digital threat as hackers again targeted the infrastructure that keeps food cold. On Monday and Tuesday, cyber intruders disrupted operations in supermarkets across Germany, Romania, and the United Kingdom. They altered temperature settings on refrigeration systems, causing spoilage and forcing stores to throw away inventory. These events mark the second major wave of attacks in the region since October.

The current crisis builds on a previous incident that swept through hundreds of stores in France in October. That earlier attack also affected retailers in several other European nations. By the end of the first wave, at least eleven European countries had reported disruptions. The latest incidents have expanded the geographic reach of the problem. On Monday, issues were confirmed in nine EU member states, including Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden. By Tuesday, the confirmed list grew to include four supermarkets in Germany and six in Romania.

No single group has claimed responsibility for the intrusions. The specific motive for the attacks remains unclear to officials. Dan Cimpean, director of Romania’s National Cyber Security Directorate, told AFP that the threat appears semi-amateurish. He stated, "We do not suspect, under any circumstances, that it is a state actor." Cimpean added that no other infrastructure was compromised during the incident. Thomas Regnier, a spokesperson for the European Union, declined to name potential culprits. He noted that EU agencies are coordinating with national authorities to build a joint strategy.

Regnier emphasized the need for preparedness. He said, "These are not isolated incidents, and of course, we have to be collectively resilient and prepared for such cyber incidents." The EU is treating the attacks as part of a continuous campaign rather than separate events. National governments are taking varied approaches to the crisis. In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office described the impact as limited but placed all relevant bodies on high alert. The Italian government met with intelligence heads and its National Cybersecurity Agency on Tuesday.

Belgium suffered some of the worst effects during the Monday attacks. Dozens of stores across multiple grocery chains reported refrigeration failures. Federal prosecutors in Belgium have opened an investigation into the matter. In Sicily, Giuseppe Spadaro, who directs a group operating Coop supermarkets, reported that four of its 300 stores were hit. He told Corriere della Sera that shelves were left empty because the inventory had to be discarded. The damage amounted to thousands of euros for that specific group.

In the United Kingdom, officials described the impact as minimal. Richard Horne, chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, told the BBC that the issue affected the broader food supply chain. He noted that vulnerable technology had been exploited in a few instances. Hackers attempted to target small meat-processing firms. In Sweden, the supermarket chain Coop identified a specific weakness. Seven of its stores had refrigerators and freezers connected to old 4G networks. A spokesperson for Coop, Carlos Cancinos, said the chain had accelerated an upgrade process to move equipment onto 5G networks and modern modems.

Danfoss, a Danish manufacturer of refrigeration controls, has been in close contact with customers for three weeks. The company’s systems were targeted again in this latest wave. Danfoss recommended that its systems should not be directly accessible from the internet. Frank Groenewegen, a cybersecurity expert at Deloitte in The Hague, urged retailers to verify if their controllers were connected to the internet and running the latest security updates. He advised retailers to remove uncertain systems from the public internet immediately to isolate them from attackers.