New cyberattack on supermarket fridges sweeps across Europe

A cyberattack raised refrigerator and freezer temperatures at supermarkets and other stores in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Ireland on Monday, forcing businesses to discard food. Ahold Delhaize, Colruyt, ICA, Coop, IKEA, Musgrave and Carrefour reported affected locations, while the attackers’ identity and any link to the earlier French incidents remained unknown. European officials warned that the attacks could disrupt the food supply chain, and a cybersecurity researcher said retail chains’ extensive connected systems make them vulnerable targets.

Colruyt said five shops had their refrigeration systems attacked, while Musgrave reported affected systems in 13 SuperValu stores in Ireland.

Carrefour said 15 of its 700 stores in Belgium were affected, and Coop said seven of its 800 stores were affected.

A butcher in Belgium estimated that the incident ruined about €15,000 worth of meat after his store’s refrigerators reached as high as 18 C.

Some affected refrigeration units used temperature-control technology from Danish firm Danfoss, which said it was working with customers to implement fixes.

Belgium’s Centre for Cybersecurity spokesperson Katrien Eggers said the attacker might never be identified and warned that AI could be used to exploit weaknesses in IT systems.

Published Nov 3, 2026 1:15 am KST

This photograph shows empty refrigerators in a Delhaize supermarket in Boortmeerbeek some 30 km from Brussels, Monday, following an IT incident. Dozens of Belgian grocery stores and an Ikea superstore saw their refrigerator temperatures soar on Monday, with several of the firms involved confirming they had been hit by a cyberattack. The Delhaize supermarket chain said refrigeration systems in "dozens" of its stores were affected by an IT incident. Delhaize did not specify the cause, but an AFP correspondent visiting one shop at Bortmeerbeek, northeast of Brussels, saw refrigerators and freezers empty with a sign blaming hackers. AFP-Yonhap

STOCKHOLM/BRUSSELS/LONDON — A hacking attack on European supermarkets spread across the continent on Monday, hitting fridges and freezers from Sweden to Belgium and forcing stores to throw away food in an incident that echoed a similar attack in France last month.

The attack, which raised temperatures in refrigerator and freezer units at dozens of stores, hit supermarket groups Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt in Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as Swedish grocers ICA and Coop. Furniture-to-meatballs retailer IKEA also saw at least one store affected.

"Everything is destroyed," Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise store in Stockholm, told Reuters during a visit to the store on Monday, adding the attack occurred at 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) but was only noticed hours later.

"There has been a cyberattack and all our freezers reached 50 degrees (Celsius)."

A spokesperson for privately held ICA said the company was aware that a "limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems".

The latest incidents follow an attack in France last month when police said hackers seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets, causing fires and food losses. Ahold also reported a cybersecurity incident to police last month.

While no one has claimed responsibility for either attack, the incidents have heightened concerns among European authorities about hybrid threats to infrastructure amid growing security tensions since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly denied involvement in sabotage or hybrid warfare operations. Reuters could not establish who was behind Monday's attacks or whether they were linked to the incidents in France.

"It is not known who is behind this attack, and it may never be determined," said Katrien Eggers, spokesperson for Belgium's Centre for Cybersecurity, adding she was concerned about the growing number of incidents, in part due to AI.

"All IT systems are potentially vulnerable, and AI can now be used to successfully exploit these weaknesses — especially by sophisticated actors," she said.

'Retail is an easy target'

From refrigerators and heating systems to security cameras and alarms, an expanding range of devices once largely mechanical can now be monitored and controlled remotely, creating new opportunities for cybercriminals.

At least some of the refrigerator units affected on Monday used temperature control technology from Danish firm Danfoss that was also targeted in the French attack. The firm said it had been working with customers to implement fixes.

The European Commission said the latest incidents highlighted how digital threats are becoming increasingly disruptive.

"They are a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers' confidence in it – a warning that we must take seriously," said EU commissioner for agriculture Christophe Hansen. "The repeated occurrence of these cyberattacks is deeply concerning."

A spokesperson for Colruyt Group, which operates Spar stores in Belgium under a franchise system, said five shops had their fridge systems attacked.

In Ireland, wholesaler Musgrave said the incident affected systems in 13 of its SuperValu stores, forcing it to remove some chilled and frozen products from sale.

"Our monitoring systems alerted us to the issue and we took immediate action," it said in a statement. "Our investigation is ongoing."

Tom Hegel, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, said such attacks were typically linked to extortion, political motives or nation-state operations, with the absence of financial demands in recent cases pointing instead to sabotage.

"Retail is an easy target because retail chains run enormous estates of refrigeration controllers, building management systems, door access panels and point-of-sale gear," he said, adding it was hard to trace hackers targeting such systems.

"An attacker who logs into an exposed control panel leaves almost nothing behind ... A teenager and an intelligence service would look much the same from the defender's side."

Carrefour, which was badly hit in last month's French attack, said 15 of its 700 stores in Belgium were affected. IKEA said one store in Belgium had been impacted and that it could not rule out disruptions at other locations.

Privately held Swedish grocery chain Coop said that 7 of its 800 stores were affected by a cyber incident involving unauthorised tampering with its refrigeration systems. It said Danfoss was among its suppliers.

Luc De Laet, founder and owner of Belgian butchery chain De Laet & Van Haver, said he was woken at 3:30 a.m. by an employee telling him there was a problem. He rushed to his store south of Antwerp and found the fridges turned up as high as 18 C.

He estimated the incident ruined about €15,000 ($16,800) worth of meat.

"It's very scary. They are hacking the system that is doing the registration of the temperature, and they can program it at a distance," he told Reuters, adding that it was infuriating to throw away so much food.

De Laet said he believed the hackers were trying to destabilise European economies. He had contacted police but did not know whether an investigation had been launched.

"I only have two words for them: wake up, please, because there's something going on," he said.

周一，瑞典、比利时、卢森堡和爱尔兰的超市及其他商店的冰箱和冷冻柜温度遭到网络攻击，导致温度升高，迫使商家丢弃食品。Ahold Delhaize、Colruyt、ICA、Coop、宜家、Musgrave 和家乐福等连锁超市均报告了受影响的门店，但攻击者的身份以及与此前法国网络攻击事件的关联性仍不清楚。欧洲官员警告称，此次攻击可能扰乱食品供应链。一位网络安全研究人员表示，零售连锁店庞大的互联系统使其成为易受攻击的目标。

Colruyt 表示有五家商店的制冷系统遭到攻击，而 Musgrave 则报告称爱尔兰有 13 家 SuperValu 商店的系统受到影响。

家乐福表示，其在比利时的 700 家门店中有 15 家受到影响；Coop 表示，其 800 家门店中有 7 家受到影响。

比利时的一位肉贩估计，由于他店里的冰箱温度高达 18 摄氏度，这起事件导致价值约 15,000 欧元的肉类被毁。

部分受影响的制冷设备采用了丹麦丹佛斯公司的温度控制技术，该公司表示正在与客户合作实施修复措施。

比利时网络安全中心发言人卡特琳·埃格斯表示，攻击者可能永远不会被识别出来，并警告说人工智能可能被用来利用信息技术系统中的漏洞。

发布于2026年11月3日凌晨1点15分（韩国标准时间）

这张照片显示，周一，在距离布鲁塞尔约30公里的博特梅尔贝克（Boortmeerbeek），一家德尔海兹（Delhaize）超市的冰箱空空如也，此前该超市遭遇了IT故障。周一，数十家比利时杂货店和一家宜家大型超市的冰箱温度飙升，其中几家涉事公司证实他们遭受了网络攻击。德尔海兹超市连锁店表示，其“数十家”门店的制冷系统受到IT故障的影响。德尔海兹没有具体说明故障原因，但法新社记者走访了位于布鲁塞尔东北部博特梅尔贝克的一家门店，发现冰箱和冷柜空空如也，并贴有告示，指责黑客攻击。法新社-韩联社

斯德哥尔摩/布鲁塞尔/伦敦——周一，针对欧洲超市的黑客攻击蔓延至整个欧洲大陆，从瑞典到比利时，冰箱和冰柜都遭到攻击，迫使商店扔掉食物。这起事件与上个月法国发生的类似攻击如出一辙。

此次攻击导致数十家商店的冰箱和冷冻柜温度升高，比利时和卢森堡的超市集团Ahold Delhaize和Colruyt，以及瑞典的杂货店ICA和Coop均受到影响。从家具到肉丸的零售商宜家也至少有一家门店受到影响。

“一切都被毁了，”斯德哥尔摩一家 ICA 特许经营店的销售经理 Engla Ingwall 周一在接受路透社采访时表示，并补充说袭击发生在凌晨 2 点（格林尼治标准时间 01:00），但几个小时后才被发现。

“我们遭遇了网络攻击，所有冷冻柜的温度都达到了50摄氏度。”

私营企业ICA的一位发言人表示，该公司已经意识到“少数门店在夜间发生事故，影响了它们的冷藏和冷冻系统”。

继上个月法国发生黑客攻击事件后，近期又出现了新的网络安全事件。警方称，黑客控制了数百家超市的制冷设备，导致火灾和食品损失。Ahold公司上个月也向警方报告了一起网络安全事件。

虽然目前尚无人声称对这两起袭击事件负责，但自俄罗斯 2022 年入侵乌克兰以来，安全紧张局势不断加剧，这两起事件也加剧了欧洲当局对基础设施面临混合威胁的担忧。

莫斯科一再否认参与破坏或混合战争行动。路透社无法确定周一袭击事件的幕后黑手，也无法确定这些袭击是否与法国发生的事件有关。

比利时网络安全中心发言人卡特琳·埃格斯表示：“目前尚不清楚是谁发动了这次攻击，而且可能永远也无法确定。”她还补充说，她对不断增加的此类事件感到担忧，部分原因是人工智能造成的。

“所有IT系统都存在潜在漏洞，而人工智能现在可以被用来成功利用这些漏洞——尤其是一些老练的攻击者，”她说。

“零售业很容易成为攻击目标”

从冰箱和供暖系统到安全摄像头和警报器，越来越多的曾经主要依靠机械的设备现在可以被远程监控和控制，这为网络犯罪分子创造了新的机会。

周一受影响的冰箱中至少有一部分采用了丹麦丹佛斯公司（Danfoss）的温度控制技术，该技术也是法国网络攻击的目标之一。丹佛斯公司表示，他们一直在与客户合作进行修复。

欧盟委员会表示，最近发生的事件凸显了数字威胁正变得越来越具有破坏性。

欧盟农业专员克里斯托夫·汉森表示：“这些网络攻击是蓄意破坏我们的食品供应链，并削弱消费者对食品供应链的信心——我们必须认真对待这一警告。这些网络攻击的反复发生令人深感担忧。”

Colruyt 集团的一位发言人表示，该集团在比利时以特许经营的方式经营 Spar 超市，其中五家门店的冷藏系统遭到破坏。

在爱尔兰，批发商 Musgrave 表示，该事件影响了旗下 13 家 SuperValu 门店的系统，迫使其下架部分冷藏和冷冻产品。

声明中称：“我们的监控系统发现了问题并立即采取了行动。目前调查仍在进行中。”

网络安全公司 SentinelOne 的研究员汤姆·黑格尔表示，此类攻击通常与勒索、政治动机或国家行动有关，而最近案例中没有提出经济要求，这反而表明是破坏行为。

“零售业很容易成为攻击目标，因为零售连锁店运营着大量的制冷控制器、楼宇管理系统、门禁面板和销售点设备，”他说道，并补充说，很难追踪针对此类系统的黑客。

“攻击者登录到暴露的控制面板后几乎不留下任何痕迹……从防御者的角度来看，一个青少年和一个情报机构看起来没什么区别。”

家乐福在上个月的法国恐袭中遭受重创，该公司表示，其在比利时的700家门店中有15家受到影响。宜家则表示，其在比利时的一家门店受到影响，并且不排除其他门店也可能受到影响。

瑞典私营连锁超市Coop表示，其800家门店中有7家受到网络安全事件的影响，其制冷系统遭到未经授权的篡改。Coop称，丹佛斯是其供应商之一。

比利时连锁肉店De Laet & Van Haver的创始人兼老板卢克·德·拉特(Luc De Laet)表示，凌晨3点30分，他被一名员工叫醒，得知出了问题。他立即赶到位于安特卫普南部的门店，发现冷藏柜的温度高达18摄氏度。

他估计这次事件毁掉了价值约 15,000 欧元（16,800 美元）的肉类。

“这太可怕了。他们入侵了温度记录系统，而且他们可以远程操控，”他告诉路透社，并补充说，扔掉这么多食物令人愤怒。

德拉特表示，他认为黑客试图破坏欧洲经济稳定。他已联系警方，但不知道警方是否已展开调查。

“我只想对他们说两句话：醒醒吧，因为出事了。”他说。