I’m going to leave the blog there for now, here’s what you need to know:
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Supermarket chains across Europe are dealing with another wave of cyber-attacks on their refrigeration systems after hackers managed to get into the temperature controls, turning the dial past 50C, spoiling huge quantities of frozen and fresh produce
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The temperature tampering was reported by chains across Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland and Estonia and affected Spar, Delhaize, Coop, ICA, Carrefour and SuperValu supermarkets among others as well as an Ikea store’s freezers in Belgium
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This is the second wave of attacks on such a scale targeting fridge and freezer controls following a cyber-hack of more than 700 supermarkets in France last month. Dutch supermarkets were also affected then.
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It’s still unclear who or which group is responsible for the latest incidents; if they’re from the same perpetrators of the French attack or if it’s a copycat operation
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But the EU food commissioner said it was aimed at undermining consumer confidence in the bloc’s food supply
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Fewer stores were affected in this round compared to the French cyber-hack, and for most of the chains it was only a minority of stores that were affected
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Swedish retailer Coop said it did use Danfoss systems in some of its affected stores – the same Danish system that was targeted in the French supermarchés last month.
The hacking of supermarket fridges and freezers has affected more than 100 stores at last count across Europe, reports AFP news agency.
In Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland and Estonia, supermarkets and retailers have had to throw away vast quantities of spoiled food.
Below is a list of affected retailers and what they’ve said on the incident, helpfully compiled by AFP.
AHOLD DELHAIZE
The Dutch supermarket operator said an overnight “IT incident” affected fridges and freezers at dozens of Delhaize stores in Belgium and Luxembourg.
The chain detected temperature rise in its cooling systems on Monday and is investigating.
Ahold also reported a cybersecurity incident to Dutch police last month after detecting suspicious activity in its infrastructure.
CARREFOUR
The French retailer said about 15 of its 700 Belgian locations were impacted by refrigeration problems.
COLRUYT GROUP
The company runs Spar stores in Belgium as franchises and said five shops had their fridge systems attacked.
COOP
Swedish Coop said cooling systems at seven of its 800 stores were affected, with disruptions ranging from complete shutdowns to partial operation. It confirmed that the issues were a result of a cyber incident involving unauthorized tampering with the cooling systems. It said Danish company Danfoss was among its suppliers.
DE LAET + VAN HAVER
The Belgian butchery chain’s store in Hove, south of Antwerp, found its fridges turned up as high as 18 degree Celsius, ruining about €15,000 ($16,764) worth of meat, founder Luc De Laet said.
ICA
Privately held ICA said a limited number of stores were affected by an overnight incident hitting their refrigeration and freezer systems.
MUSGRAVE
The food wholesaler said a cyber incident had affected refrigeration systems in 13 of its SuperValu stores in Ireland, forcing it to remove some chilled and frozen products from sale.
The information we’re getting about how the cyber-attack occurred is still piecemeal; but we’re getting more details from from different affected supermarket chains.
In Sweden, the Coop supermarket chain just released a statement confirming a cyber incident involving “unauthorised tampering” in their fridge’s cooling systems.
Noticeably, Coop also confirmed that one of their system suppliers is Danfoss, the same Danish company which supplied temperature controllers to the French supermarkets attacked last month.
In the French attack, the hackers pirated controllers that were mostly supplied by Danfoss. They disabled the alarm systems before adjusting the thermostats or extending the defrost programme by hours.
Several of the affected supermarket chains today say that fridge and freezer temperatures were pushed to 50C. From the incident in Estonia, we know too that the computer programme controlling the temperature controls was hacked into, according to authorities there.
Given the geographic scale of this latest wave of fridge cyber-attacks – with stores in Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Estonia and Ireland all affected- it’s worth remembering the recent warnings from governments urging citizens to prepare food and water stockpiles.
Just a fortnight ago, the UK government blasted out its ‘Be Ready’ campaign, urging households to be prepared with three days’ worth of food and water (about nine litres per person) at home, in case of emergencies.
Fridge hacking wasn’t put down as a reason – the first known incidents of this type on this scale, were only reported in France in October. But there has been growing official concerns about the impact of the climate crisis, technological dependency and hostile state threats.
The EU food commissioner has said that the bloc’s food security isn’t in question, but these latest fridge attacks will be another wake-up call for citizens.
This latest wave of cyberattacks targeting supermarkets across Europe is “a deliberate attempt to disrupt” the EU’s food supply, says Christophe Hansen, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food.
He added it was also aimed at undermining the public’s confidence, and while “food security is not currently at risk, … the food waste and impact on businesses are real.”
The Swedish furniture giant is the latest to report that its stores have also been affected – saying at least one store in Belgium was targeted.
The home retailer specified it was a store in Mons, that had also suffered an attack on its refrigeration control systems. (Think of the meatballs!)
Belgium supermarkets this morning had already reported the breaches, affecting dozens of stores including Spar, Carrefour and Delhaize sites.
Ikea said it had been forced to remove some food from their fridges as a precaution.
“We cannot rule out that additional locations may be affected, as we continue our investigation,” an IKEA spokesperson said.
Reuters has a quick snap that an EU spokesperson has said it will continue to work with member states over the fridge and freezer cyber-attacks reported earlier.
The spokesperson insisted the EU had several tools in place to deal with such incidents, but that it showed that cyber-attacks can disrupt the daily lives of citizens.
Three men accused of causing a deadly explosion in the heart of Athens’ tourist district by allegedly stealing copper piping from the local gas supply network were appearing in court Monday for a preliminary hearing, AP reports.
The September blast killed six people when it caused the collapse of a two-story residential building in the Greek capital’s historic Plaka district, near the ancient Acropolis. The three suspects allegedly removed piping from the building’s gas supply network to sell the copper as scrap, and face charges including arson, manslaughter with possible intent, causing a deadly explosion and causing dangerous bodily harm.
Back to the political crisis in Belgium for a moment where earlier this morning prime minister Bart De Wever tendered his resignation to King Philippe. A statement said Philippe was “withholding his decision” for now.
The Brussels Times reports that “De Wever will visit Philippe again on Friday, when the king will make a final decision on his resignation.”
De Wever’s move came after the five-party coalition he leads could not agree on a budget. If his resignation is accepted, then either another party might be invited to attempt to form a coalition based on the existing parliamentary balance, or new elections may be held.
SuperValu, Ireland’s third-largest supermarket chain, says it’s also had some of its freezer temperatures in-store tampered with, in this second wave of suspected cyber hackings of supermarkets across Europe.
SuperValu said a cyber incident had taken place at 13 of its 233 stores – and that it’s also been forced to throw out chilled and frozen products that have spoiled.
In Estonia, a manufacturer of the affected fridge technology said one its clients had been affected, and the cyber-hackers had gotten into a computer controlling the refrigeration levels and turned the temperature up to 50C. The Selver chain said one of its stores was affected.
As we’ve been reporting, supermarkets across Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg all experienced this temperature- control meddling overnight.
In Belgium, affected chains include Spar, Carrefour, Delhaize, Intermarche, and in Sweden, ICA, Coop and Axfood.
Carrefour said 15 of its stores in Belgium had been affected by the hack. The chain was targeted in a mass cyber attack in France last month.
“It’s a cyberattack, there is no other reason,” Carrefour Belgium spokesman Mich Vergauwen told AFP news agency, but noting the “impact is very limited”.
He said 15 stores among 700 in total were affected but not every refrigerator was impacted.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
