New cyberattack on supermarket fridges sweeps across Europe

"Everything is destroyed," Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm, told. Reutersduring a visit to the store on Monday, adding the attack occurred at 2 am (0100 GMT) but was only noticed hours later.

Fridges and freezers at supermarkets in Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg and Ireland warmed overnight, about three weeks after France. They were hacked.https://t.co/d3QpzqYU41— Clash Report (@clashreport)November 2, 2026"There has been a cyberattack and all our freezers reached 50 degrees (Celsius).

"A spokesperson for privately held ICA said the company ​was aware that a "limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems". The latest incidents follow an attack in.

Francelast month when police said hackers seized control of ​cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, causing fires and food losses. Ahold also reported acybersecurityincident to police last month. Read:Investigators hunt French supermarket fridge hackers, no claim of responsibility.

While no one has claimed responsibility for either attack, ⁠the incidents have heightened concerns among European authorities about hybrid threats to infrastructure amid growing security tensions since Russia's2022 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in sabotage or hybrid warfare operations.

Reuterscould not establish who was ​behind Monday's attacks or whether they were linked to the incidents in France.

"It is not known who is behind this attack, and it may never be determined," said Katrien Eggers, spokesperson for Belgium's Centre for Cybersecurity, adding she was concerned ​about the growing number of incidents, in part due to AI."All IT systems are potentially vulnerable, and AI can now be used to successfully exploit these weaknesses — especially by sophisticated actors," she said.

'Retail is an easy target'From refrigerators and heating systems to security cameras and alarms, an expanding range of devices once largely mechanical can now be monitored and controlled remotely, creating newopportunities for cybercriminals. At least some of the refrigerator units affected on Monday used temperature control technology from Danish firm Danfoss that was also targeted in the French ​attack.

The firm said it had been working with customers to implement fixes. The European Commission said the latest incidents highlighted how digital threats are becoming increasingly disruptive.

Read More:French supermarket fridges hacked"They are a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine ​consumers' confidence in it – a warning that we must take seriously," said EU commissioner for agriculture Christophe Hansen. "The repeated occurrence of these cyberattacks is deeply concerning.

"A spokesperson for Colruyt Group, which operates Spar stores in Belgium under a franchise system, said five shops ‌had their ⁠fridge systems attacked. In Ireland, wholesaler Musgrave said the incident affected systems in 13 of its Super.

Valu stores, forcing it to remove some chilled and frozen products from sale. "Our monitoring systems alerted us to the issue, and we took immediate action," it said in a statement. "Our investigation is ongoing.

"Tom Hegel, a researcher at cybersecurity firm Sentinel. One, said such attacks were typically linked to extortion, political motives or nation-state operations, with the absence of financial demands in recent cases pointing instead to sabotage.

"Retail is an easy target because retail chains run enormous estates of refrigeration controllers, building management systems, door access panels and point-of-sale gear," he said, adding it was hard to trace hackers targeting such systems.🚨 NEW: Britain is on alert to protect Tesco and Sainsbury's fridges amid cyber attacks on similar fridges across Europe.

Hackers are remotely accessing them and turning temperatures up to as high as 80Cpic.twitter.com/k. Qqyq. Sos82— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK)November 2, 2026"An attacker who logs into ​an exposed control panel leaves almost nothing behind...

A teenager ​and an intelligence service would look much the ⁠same from the defender's side. "'It's very scary'Carrefour, which was badly hit in last month's French attack, said 15 of its 700 stores in Belgium were affected.

IKEA said one store in Belgium had been impacted and that it could not rule out disruptions at other locations. Privately held Swedish grocery chain Coop said that 7 of its 800 stores were ​affected by a cyber incident involving unauthorised tampering with its refrigeration systems.

It said Danfoss was among its suppliers. Luc De Laet, founder and owner of Belgian butchery ​chain De Laet & Van Haver, said ⁠he was woken at 3:30 am by an employee telling him there was a problem.

He rushed to his store south of Antwerp and found the fridges turned up as high as 18 C.He estimated the incident ruined about €15,000 ($16,800) worth of meat. "It's very scary. They are hacking the system that is doing the registration of the temperature, and they can program it at a distance," he told.

Reuters, adding that it was infuriating to throw away so much food. De Laet said he believed ⁠the hackers were ​trying to destabilise European economies. He had contacted police but did not know whether an investigation had been launched.

"I only have two words ​for them: wake up, please, because there's something going on," he said.