Shop freezers in seven European countries hit by cyber-attack

Dozens of supermarkets across seven European countries have been hit by a suspected cyber-attack affecting their refrigerators and freezers.

Around 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, while a smaller number of shops were hit in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.

Sabcobel, a Belgian company that manufactures some of the affected refrigerators, said the units' evaporators were switched to defrost mode, causing them to warm up, in what is believed to be the same method used in last month's incident that hit hundreds of French supermarkets.

Millions of euros worth of food had to be thrown away, according to local media reports.

Stephan Moelans, the CEO of Sabcobel, which operates Delhaize's systems, told the Belga news agency that the incident was a cyber-attack and that the company had been "working all night and morning to disconnect the affected units from the network".

He said since the French attack in early October, the company had been working to "protect our customers fridges against this vulnerability" but that the units needed physical modifications, not just software updates.

Most supermarkets across Europe are linked to the internet, and maintenance and troubleshooting can be done remotely.

"The simplest solution is to manage the fridges over a secure internet connection. Most of our customers switched to that after the attack in France," Moelans added.

It is unclear who is behind the apparent attack.

The temperature of freezers in several shops across Europe reportedly rose to as high as 50C (122F).

Both Belgium and Sweden's national cyber-security agencies said they were monitoring the incident.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre said it was working with international partners and industry to "fully understand details of an incident". No incidents have been reported in the UK.

In Flanders, northern Belgium, a Delhaize branch in Hoeilaart told news website Het Laatste Nieuws it had lost €100,000 (£83,500) worth of produce.

The manager said that estimate did not even take into account further losses that would result from closing the shop.

Carrefour, a French-owned supermarket, said the incident had only affected 15 of its Belgian stores, adding that measures had been taken immediately to ensure all shops remained open.

A spokesperson for Colruyt Group, which operates Spar stores in Belgium under a franchise system, told Reuters news agency five shops had their fridge systems attacked.