EU urges stronger protection after cyberattacks hit supermarket freezers in 10 countries
EU representatives warned the attacks may be a deliberate attempt to disrupt the food supply chain after freezer systems failed in at least ten countries.
The European Union has urged stronger protections after a wave of cyberattacks disrupted refrigeration systems at major supermarkets across at least ten European countries, in what EU representatives warned may be a deliberate attempt to undermine the food supply chain.
Retailers reported problems in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Sweden. The outages caused a rapid rise in temperatures inside freezer chambers and forced stores to discard affected food stock.
According to reports, temperatures inside some supermarket freezers climbed as high as 50 degrees Celsius, rendering perishable goods unsafe and leading to large-scale waste.
EU officials flag supply-chain and security risks
Officials from the European Union described the incidents as more than isolated IT failures and warned they could represent a targeted effort to disrupt food distribution routes across the bloc. The warning underscored the interconnected risks between operational technology in retail and wider food security.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far, and investigations by national authorities and private companies are reportedly ongoing as governments and retailers assess the scale of the damage.
The incidents have prompted calls for faster upgrades to cybersecurity for critical retail infrastructure and closer coordination between member states to prevent similar disruptions in the future.
Photo: DPA)
