{"id":469916,"date":"2026-11-02T18:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T17:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/11\/02\/attacchi-hacker-contro-supermercati-ue-hansen-tentativo-dinterrompere-lapprovvigionamento-alimentare\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T19:15:42","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T18:15:42","slug":"hacker-attacks-on-eu-supermarkets-hansen-says-an-attempt-to-disrupt-the-food-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/11\/02\/hacker-attacks-on-eu-supermarkets-hansen-says-an-attempt-to-disrupt-the-food-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"Hacker attacks on EU supermarkets: Hansen says, \u201cAn attempt to disrupt the food supply\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Supermarket chains in at least seven European countries have reported that, overnight, the temperatures in fridges and freezers at dozens of their outlets rose sharply, raising fears of a cyberattack similar to the one in France that caused losses running into millions of euros. Retailers in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Sweden have today<\/strong> (2 November) experienced problems with their refrigeration systems<\/strong>; several companies have confirmed that they have been the victims of a cyberattack. These incidents follow an attack last month in France, during which hackers took control of the refrigeration systems in around 700 supermarkets, raising temperatures to as high as 50\u00b0C and causing fires and the loss of foodstuffs, resulting in estimated losses in the tens of millions of euros. An ever-wider range of devices, including refrigeration systems, can now be monitored and controlled remotely; this has led the authorities to fear, in particular, government-sponsored hybrid attacks, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. <\/p>\n

For Christophe Hansen<\/strong>, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, there is no doubt: this is \u201ca deliberate attempt to disrupt<\/strong>\u201d the EU\u2019s food supply<\/strong>. The aim, according to Hansen, is also to undermine public confidence; although \u201cfood security is not currently at risk, food waste and the impact on businesses are real problems.\u201d For this reason, a spokesperson for the European Commission stated that the Union \u201cwill continue to work with Member States\u201d on the issue of cyber-attacks. The EU, the spokesperson added, \u201chas various tools at its disposal to manage such incidents,\u201d while noting that the incident demonstrates how cyber-attacks can disrupt citizens\u2019 daily lives. <\/p>\n

As reported by The Guardian<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> the Swedish chain Coop told the newspaper Aftonbladet<\/em> that six of its outlets had been affected, while ICA stated that it was \u201caware that a limited number of shops had been affected overnight by an incident that compromised their refrigeration and freezing systems.\u201d An ICA store in Sj\u00f6bo, in southern Sweden, reported that its fridges and freezers had been hacked and their temperature set to 50\u00b0C. Another shop, in Stockholm, reported that its freezers had broken down \u201cdue to a cyberattack at 2 am\u201d and that \u201ceverything was destroyed.\u201d The head of the National Cyber Security Centre, John Billow<\/strong>, stated that the organisation is investigating a number of incidents in various locations across Sweden. As reported to Reuters, it has emerged that there is a \u201crather high number of exposed operational technology devices\u201d in the country, which require security updates or patches. <\/p>\n

Ikea has also confirmed that at least one of its shops in Belgium has been affected<\/strong>: the retailer specified that the shop in question was in Mons, which had also suffered an attack on its refrigeration control systems. As a result, the group has, as a precautionary measure, removed certain food products from its refrigeration units, thereby accepting that some of the stock will be wasted. The Dutch retail chain Ahold Delhaize<\/strong>, which last month reported a similar incident to the authorities in the Netherlands, has announced that fridges and freezers in dozens of its supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg have been affected by the problem<\/strong>. The company has not specified the cause, but some journalists who visited a store north-east of Brussels found the fridges and freezers empty, with a sign reading: \u201cDue to cyber-attacks, the refrigerated shelves and freezers are empty. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.\u201d A company spokesperson, Sarah De Meester<\/strong>, explained that the range of fresh and frozen products is \u201ctemporarily somewhat limited\u201d in the affected shops, while pointing out that distribution centres are operating as normal and that there are no disruptions to deliveries. <\/p>\n

The Belgian newspaper Le Soir<\/em><\/b><\/a> reported that dozens of shops and supermarkets had been affected, including five Spar outlets, the “Shop & Go” convenience shops attached to Q8 petrol stations, and a number of small Proxy Delhaize convenience shops. \u201cWe began mobilising technicians at 1 am,\u201d Stephan Moelans<\/strong>, managing director of Sabcobel \u2013 the company that manages Delhaize\u2019s refrigeration systems \u2013 told the newspaper. \u201cWe spent the whole night and the morning disconnecting the affected systems.\u201d To the news agency Belga<\/em><\/a>, Moelans explained that it was a cyberattack and that the systems\u2019 evaporators had been set to defrost mode<\/strong>. The Colruyt and Intermarch\u00e9 supermarket chains also reported technical problems affecting their refrigerators in five and 15 of their stores respectively, while Carrefour Belgium reported disruption in around 15 of its 700 shops. \u201cThis is a cyberattack; there is no other explanation,\u201d said Mich Vergauwen<\/strong>, a spokesperson for Carrefour. <\/p>\n

In Finland<\/strong>, the daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported that shops belonging to the Kesko supermarket chain are investigating similar issues, while the Dutch public broadcaster NOS<\/em> reported that the systems at at least 17 outlets, mostly small ones, had been affected. In Estonia<\/strong>, at a supermarket chain, the attackers gained access to a computer controlling the refrigeration system, raising the temperature to 50\u00b0C, as revealed to broadcaster ERR<\/em> by the refrigeration systems supplier Kitman Coldtech<\/strong>. \u201cThis is a very recent incident, which occurred this morning,\u201d said the managing director Jann Mutso<\/strong>, adding that the attack was dealt with within a few minutes and did not cause any significant damage. The Selver supermarket chain confirmed that one of its outlets was affected. SuperValu, Ireland\u2019s third-largest supermarket chain, has reported that its refrigeration systems \u2013 specifically a particular model found in 13 of its 223 stores \u2013 were affected by a cyber incident, necessitating the removal of chilled and frozen products from sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Problems with refrigeration systems have been reported from Estonia to Belgium. According to the European Commissioner for Agriculture, the aim is to undermine public confidence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7915,"featured_media":469912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25709,25712],"tags":[36475,33704,29927,27226,36476,33394],"class_list":["post-469916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agrifood-en","category-general-news","tag-approvvigionamento-alimentare","tag-attacchi","tag-christophe-hansen-en","tag-hacker-en","tag-supermercati","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7915"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469917,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469916\/revisions\/469917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}