Supermarket refrigeration problems were reported in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden after temperatures rose overnight, forcing some retailers to discard food, AFP reported on 3 November. [E7]
Sweden’s Coop said the cyber incident had been resolved and that fridges and freezers at its six affected stores were working normally, AFP reported. [E8] Coop Italy said the incident targeted its remote-control system for frozen-food sections and had also been resolved. [E9]
The earlier accounts described refrigerators and freezers malfunctioning in seven European countries, with thermostats remotely raised in some cases to 50C, the Guardian reported. [E1] The attack was reported at Belgian branches of Carrefour, Intermarché and Ikea; Coop and ICA in Sweden; Delhaize in Luxembourg; Kesko in Finland; SupaValu in Ireland; and shops in Estonia. [E2]
The BBC had reported dozens of supermarkets affected across seven countries, including around 40 Delhaize stores in Belgium and Luxembourg; it also cited smaller numbers of shops in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland. [E3] [E4]
Sabcobel, a Belgian maker of some affected refrigerators, said evaporators had been switched to defrost mode, warming the units, in what it believed was the method used in last month’s incident affecting hundreds of French supermarkets. [E5] Its chief executive, Stephan Moelans, told Belga that the company had worked through the night and morning to disconnect affected units from the network. [E6]