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Supermarkets across Europe affected by cyberattacks on refrigeration systems

Ana Maria Eftene

2 November 2026, 12:13

International

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Several supermarket chains in Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Estonia were affected on Monday by cyber incidents that disrupted the operation of refrigerators and freezers. Temperatures in the refrigeration units rose, in some cases to as high as 50 degrees Celsius, resulting in food product losses and the temporary closure of some stores.

In Belgium, Delhaize reported problems with its cooling systems, while Sabcobel, the company that manages these installations, stated that the evaporators had been switched by hackers to defrost mode. Colruyt Group announced that the refrigeration systems in five Spar stores had been attacked.

In Sweden, similar incidents affected stores belonging to the ICA and Coop chains. An ICA store in Stockholm said that the attack took place during the night, and employees were forced to throw away spoiled food. Swedish authorities are investigating several cases and warn that numerous operational devices are exposed and require security updates.

Similar problems were also reported in Estonia, where temperatures had been set to 50 degrees Celsius. The wave of attacks comes after a similar incident in France in October, when hundreds of supermarkets were affected.

Context: previous cyberattacks affected retail chains by manipulating refrigeration systems and temporarily shutting down IT infrastructure

In a previous incident in France, a cyberattack compromised the refrigeration systems of several supermarkets, with indications that the hackers targeted older versions of Danfoss software used for remotely monitoring freezers and refrigerated display cases. According to press reports, the attack exploited the automatic defrost function, causing the equipment to heat the products instead of keeping them at the proper temperature, with cases in which temperatures reached as high as 50 degrees Celsius.

In parallel, another type of disruption was reported by the Ahold Delhaize group: the company temporarily shut down some of its IT systems following a cybersecurity incident identified in its United States network, taking certain systems offline to limit the spread. The measure also had an impact in the Netherlands, where the group's chains reported problems with online services, deliveries, and customer relations.