Freezers in Sweden, Belgium overheat following possible cyberattacks

Possible cyberattacks have triggered rising temperatures in grocery store refrigeration systems across Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The head of ⁠Sweden’s national cybersecurity centre, John Billow, confirmed on Monday to the Reuters news agency that the centre ⁠is responding to ⁠multiple incidents affecting store cooling systems.

The temperature of freezers at several Swedish stores rose suddenly overnight, store operators ICA and Coop said.

Meanwhile, the Belga news agency reported overnight temperature increases at dozens of ⁠⁠Ahold Delhaize stores in Belgium and Luxembourg, which were blamed on a cyberattack, quoting refrigeration company ⁠⁠Sabcobel’s chief ⁠⁠executive ⁠⁠Stephan Moelans.

A spokesperson for the supermarket chain earlier said an “IT incident” had affected its fridges and freezers. The company is investigating the incident.

Ahold Delhaize reported a cybersecurity incident to Dutch police last month.

The cyberattack on refrigeration systems at hundreds of supermarkets in France raised the temperature of fridges and freezers to as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122F), spoiling food and causing fires at several stores.

One Swedish store said in a social media post on Monday that the temperature of its refrigerators and freezers had been set to the same temperature as during the cyberattack in France.

“We are aware that a limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems,” a spokesperson for privately held ICA told Reuters in an email.

Privately held retailer Coop told Swedish daily Aftonbladet that six of its stores had been affected by similar incidents.