Hackers target European supermarket refrigeration systems in second wave of cyberattacks

Cyberattacks targeting supermarket refrigeration units expanded across Europe on November 2, affecting stores and food businesses in at least nine countries. Al Jazeera reported that the second wave impacted operations in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden. [1]

The incident follows earlier disruptions in France on October 11 and October 12, when attackers remotely altered temperature settings at roughly 700 French stores to temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius. As FTMQ News reported earlier, those hackers raised freezer temperatures from as low as minus 27 degrees Celsius, lasting four to six hours and spoiling large amounts of food. Al Jazeera added that the French attacks sparked fires and caused millions of euros in spoiled inventory. [1][2]

France has since attributed the October attack to Shahid Kaveh, a cyberunit affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Al Jazeera. French authorities described the event as the first large-scale sabotage cyberattack on the nation. [1]

The European incidents previously hit 13 SuperValu stores operating a specific model, as FTMQ News reported earlier. Parent company Musgrave removed all chilled and frozen products from sale in the affected branches before resolving the issue, while Smarttech founder Ronan Murphy warned that artificial intelligence makes it easier for hackers to disrupt connected systems. [3]