Frozen part II: Hackers remotely defrost produce in Euro supermarkets ... again

The cy­be­rat­tacks on com­mer­cial re­fri­ge­ra­tors and free­zers in Eu­ro­pe con­ti­nue, as a slew of gro­cery sto­res in Bel­gium, Ire­land, Lu­xem­bourg, and Swe­den re­port wi­des­pread food was­ta­ge as a re­sult of mis­creants rai­sing the tem­pe­ra­tu­res to highs of 50ºC (122°F). In Bel­gium, around 40 Delhai­ze sto­res were af­fec­ted after the at­tac­kers re­por­tedly swit­ched frid­ges and free­zers into de­frost mode over­night, bet­ween Sun­day and Mon­day, re­sul­ting in stock is­sues. Diego Lou­wers, a Proxy Delhai­ze store ma­na­ger in Ove­rij­se, near Brus­sels, told RTL Info that the con­se­quen­ces of the cy­be­rat­tacks were "ca­tas­trophic," for­cing the store to throw out the en­ti­rety of its fresh and fro­zen pro­ducts. "We can't have anything worse in our line of work," he said. "We have to throw away all of our mer­chan­di­se, and it's both heart­brea­king and very com­pli­ca­ted ope­ra­tio­nally." A Delhai­ze spo­kes­per­son said it took steps to en­su­re sto­res re­main stoc­ked, although fresh and fro­zen pro­ducts are "tem­po­ra­rily so­mewhat li­mi­ted." "On Mon­day, 2 No­vem­ber, we iden­ti­fied an IT in­ci­dent af­fec­ting the re­fri­ge­ra­tion sys­tems in se­ve­ral dozen of our sto­res," they said. "We im­me­dia­tely took the ne­ces­sary mea­su­res to keep our sto­res ope­ra­tio­nal and en­su­re that our cus­to­mers can con­ti­nue to do their shop­ping as usual. "In the af­fec­ted sto­res, the range of fresh and fro­zen pro­ducts is tem­po­ra­rily so­mewhat li­mi­ted. Our dis­tri­bu­tion cen­tres are ope­ra­ting nor­mally, and there has been no dis­rup­tion to de­li­ve­ries to our sto­res. "We are, of cour­se, con­ti­nuing to en­su­re that our pro­ducts are sto­red and pre­sen­ted under op­ti­mal con­di­tions, so that we can pro­vi­de our cus­to­mers with the qua­lity and fresh­ness they have come to ex­pect from us." Around 15 Ca­rre­four sto­res are also re­por­tedly af­fec­ted, as are sites ope­ra­ted by In­ter­mar­ché, Spar, and Shop & Go sto­res lo­ca­ted at Q8 ser­vi­ce sta­tions. Bel­gium’s De Laet & Van Haver chain of but­cher shops re­por­ted tem­pe­ra­tu­re rises in its ap­plian­ces too, but fo­llo­wed up with a sta­te­ment on Mon­day sa­ying there was no im­pact on its pro­du­ce, and all sto­res re­main open. Si­mul­ta­neo­usly, si­mi­lar is­sues have af­fec­ted Swe­dish gro­cery chain ICA, which con­fir­med at­tacks on a "small num­ber of sto­res." "We can con­firm that we have been in­for­med of an in­ci­dent over­night af­fec­ting a small num­ber of ICA sto­res ope­ra­ting outsi­de ICA’s cen­tral net­work," a com­pany spo­kes­per­son said. "The in­ci­dent im­pac­ted the sto­res’ re­fri­ge­ra­tion and free­zer sys­tems. ICA is cu­rrently sup­por­ting the af­fec­ted sto­res in ma­na­ging the si­tua­tion." ICA did not res­pond to ques­tions about the scale of food was­ta­ge nor when nor­mal ope­ra­tions are ex­pec­ted to con­ti­nue. One store, ICA Nära in Böda on Öland, said via so­cial media that it is open today but has no fresh or fro­zen pro­du­ce to sell. "Un­for­tu­na­tely, we are one of the sto­res whose re­fri­ge­ra­tors and free­zers have been hac­ked," it said. "We are open as usual, but un­for­tu­na­tely we have no re­fri­ge­ra­tors and free­zers to sell. "We have no sta­tus on when the re­fri­ge­ra­tors and free­zers are ex­pec­ted to be up and run­ning again." The store ma­na­ger, Mats Ols­son, told SVT that he arri­ved to work on Mon­day mor­ning and was gree­ted by a pudd­le of water and free­zers set to 55 de­grees C – a tale echoed by other ma­na­gers across the country. Coop sto­res are af­fec­ted by si­mi­lar at­tacks too, with six lo­ca­tions in cen­tral Swe­den ex­pe­rien­cing frid­ge-free­zer is­sues, ac­cor­ding to a com­pany spo­kes­per­son. Li­ke­wi­se, at least 13 Su­per­Va­lue sto­res in Ire­land are also af­fec­ted, with fresh and fro­zen food being th­rown out, ac­cor­ding to pa­rent com­pany Mus­gra­ve spea­king to RTE. The news comes less than a month after va­rious gro­cery chains in Fran­ce re­sor­ted to dis­car­ding buc­ket­fuls of pro­du­ce after their ap­plian­ces were re­mo­tely de­fros­ted by cy­ber­crooks. Ca­rre­four, Coopé­ra­ti­ve U, In­ter­mar­ché, Mo­no­prix, and others were hit with cy­be­rat­tacks in mid-Oc­to­ber, and hun­dreds of sto­res across the chains were re­por­tedly im­pac­ted.