New fridge cyberattack hits Belgium stores

It is the latest in a series of cyberattacks on store refrigerators and suspicious actions around the supermarkets across Europe.

A handful of Swedish supermarkets saw temperatures in their refrigerators and freezers soar early Monday, Swedish chains Ica and Coop said without giving a cause. Major French retailers said on October 12 that hundreds of store refrigeration systems were hit by a cyberattack, which forced them to throw out spoiled food and raised food security fears.

Carrefour Belgium reported disruption in about 15 of its 700 stores in Belgium. "It's a cyberattack, there is no other reason," said Mich Vergauwen, a spokesman for Carrefour Belgium.

An Ikea Belgium spokeswoman likewise said a cyberattack hit its store in Mons, southwestern Belgium, causing the temperature of freezers to rise suddenly in the early hours of Monday.

It is the only Ikea store affected because it uses a different service provider than others in Belgium, the spokeswoman added, without identifying the provider.

The Delhaize supermarket chain meanwhile said refrigeration systems in "dozens" of its stores were affected by an IT incident.

Delhaize did not specify the cause, but an AFP correspondent visiting one shop at Bortmeerbeek, northeast of Brussels, saw refrigerators and freezers empty with a sign blaming hackers.

"Due to cyberattacks, there will be no products on the refrigerated or freezer shelves. We offer our sincere apologies."

The Colruyt and Intermarche supermarket chains likewise told AFP they had been hit by technical problems affecting fridges in five and around 15 stores respectively, without confirming if a cyberattack was suspected.

"In some cases, it involved only a single refrigerator, so the impact was quite limited," an Intermarche spokesman said, adding that the incidents took place overnight Sunday-to-Monday.

The issue is not limited to Belgium.

The Swedish chains ICA and Coop said they were looking into the cause of their temperature soars that forced them to throw away food.

One ICA store at Sjobo in southern Sweden, posted on Facebook, however, that its fridges and freezers had "been hacked and they set the temperature at 50 degrees" Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).

More than 500 supermarkets were targeted in the French attack on October 12. The equipment was provided by Danish company, Danfoss.