Hackers spoil groceries across Europe by remotely defrosting supermarket cooling units

Cyberattacks have struck grocery stores across multiple European countries, remotely driving cooling temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) and ruining extensive food stocks. The disruptions hit chains across Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg, Estonia, the Netherlands, and Ireland. [3][4]

Intruders carried out the sabotage by remotely triggering the freezers' built-in defrost mode, overriding duration limits and standard temperature thresholds. Sabcobel chief executive Stephan Moelans noted that while shifting units to secure internet connections serves as an immediate fix, long-term protection against the vulnerability requires physical modifications to the equipment. [4]

The incident marks the second such wave in recent weeks, following an earlier attack that struck supermarket refrigeration units across France using the exact same defrost override method. The widespread disruption underscores growing vulnerabilities in essential infrastructure as commercial refrigeration systems rely increasingly on internet connectivity. [4]