A cyberattack targeting refrigerated systems in supermarkets has spread across Europe, and a Dutch ethical hacker says the weak response to an earlier breach in France is to blame, according to De Telegraaf. The paper reports the claim in live coverage of the incident.
The disruption has reached stores in multiple countries. NU reports that hackers knocked out cooling at dozens of Belgian supermarkets, while AD.nl describes the campaign affecting refrigeration systems from Belgium to Scandinavia. NOS, cited in the same coverage, reports a renewed attack on retail cooling units across Europe, with the outlet quoting criticism that companies "have been asleep" on the issue.
De Telegraaf also reports that a refrigerator manufacturer had already warned about vulnerabilities reachable through a "back door," and that every supermarket should now act on the problem. The reporting does not specify how many stores or countries are affected in total, or who is behind the attacks.
The coverage points to a pattern: a known weakness in connected cooling equipment, an earlier incident in France, and criticism that the industry did not respond quickly enough. The sources do not detail what that French hack involved or how it was handled.
Watch for supermarket chains and equipment makers to confirm which systems were exposed and whether the manufacturer's earlier warning leads to patching across stores in the affected countries.
