European supermarket freezers hacked, several million euros of frozen food discarded
Freezers in five countries were remotely warmed to 45 degrees Celsius, prompting mass disposal of frozen stock and investigations by authorities.
Hackers forced dozens of supermarkets across Europe to discard large quantities of frozen goods after remotely manipulating refrigeration units, industry reports say. Stores in Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland were affected, with operators reporting losses worth several million euros.
How the attack worked
The culprit, identified by manufacturers as the Belgian company Sabcobel’s hardware, was an embedded anti-fogging control inside the freezers that attackers were able to exploit to raise temperatures to 45 degrees Celsius. That forced retailers to throw away frozen inventories that were no longer safe to sell.
A similar incident was reported last month in France. Manufacturers responded by designing physical modifications to the affected appliances rather than relying solely on software patches, saying the changes were necessary to prevent a recurrence.
U.S. authorities opened an investigation in August after receiving multiple reports of refrigerator malfunctions at several military bases. They announced cooperation with French counterparts to determine whether the base incidents are related to the supermarket attacks.
Despite the financial damage — described as several million euros — no group or individual has claimed responsibility for the breaches so far, and affected companies are working on repairs and hardware changes to secure their equipment.
Photo: press material from the event
