Freezers Rigged to 50°C Force Mass Food Purge Across European Grocers
Hackers manipulated internet-connected refrigeration systems across European supermarkets early this week, driving freezer temperatures up to 50°C and forcing stores to destroy vast quantities of spoiled inventory. European grocery retailers, equipment suppliers, and national cybersecurity agencies are now scrambling to secure operational technology networks and disconnect vulnerable cooling controllers from the public internet.
ICA and Carrefour pull affected cooling units offline after remote temperature tampering
Supermarket operators in Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Estonia, and Finland reported compromised cooling equipment, with Swedish retailer ICA confirming disruptions across 23 stores and Carrefour reporting 15 affected locations in Belgium. Danish equipment manufacturer Danfoss advised client stores to install available security updates and immediately cease exposing cooling controllers directly to public web connections, while Swedish retailer Coop began moving its compromised connections off older 4G networks onto 5G infrastructure.
The European breaches follow a similar cooling system disruption in France last month and parallel an October 29 investigation by the U.S. Department of Defense into unexplained freezer malfunctions at military commissaries.
