Belgium probes supermarket fridge failures after Europe hacks
A supermarket fridge cyber attack wave has left stores from Belgium to Estonia dumping chilled food, as EU officials warn of further disruption to essential services.
Refrigeration failures linked to cyber-attacks have been reported at supermarket chains spanning countries including Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Estonia, Sweden and Finland.
Retailers have had to discard chilled and frozen food; Belgium saw dozens of stores hit and prosecutors opened an investigation.
The EU’s food commissioner said the bloc is taking the incidents seriously and warned of more disruption; a Commission spokesman did not attribute blame.
The problems follow a cyber-attack about three weeks earlier that disrupted as many as 700 French grocery stores, with food losses estimated at tens of millions of euros.
Italy said the impact was currently very limited and blamed obsolete, internet-exposed systems at affected sites; Ireland’s Musgrave said replenishment was under way at 13 SuperValu stores.