Supermarket refrigerator hacks spread from Europe to U.S. base
Initial findings in Germany point to older cooling models without security updates as the main target of the attacks.
A wave of hacks against supermarket cooling systems has spread from France to Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland and Germany, and is even suspected to be linked to freezer disruptions at a U.S. military base. At several stores, refrigerator and freezer temperatures suddenly rose, forcing chilled and frozen food to be thrown away. Coop in Sweden said six of its stores were affected, while Ahold Delhaize reported dozens of supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg hit by IT incidents. German media reports said hackers activated defrost mode; one supermarket in Lower Bavaria recorded temperatures rising to 50 degrees Celsius. Police and cybercrime investigators in several countries are now probing a pattern that appears to target older cooling devices that no longer receive technical support.