Italy's national cybersecurity agency has issued a warning to companies across the food supply chain after a wave of cyberattacks hit the refrigeration systems of supermarket operators in several European countries. The Agenzia per la Cybersicurezza Nazionale (ACN) said the incidents have affected cold-chain infrastructure in Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, Latvia, Finland and Sweden, according to AGI. The agency has urged operators in large-scale retail, food logistics, industrial refrigeration and maintenance services to apply security measures it had already recommended following earlier digital incidents at supermarket chains in France.
A meeting chaired by Alfredo Mantovano, undersecretary at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, is scheduled for 11:30 on Tuesday at Palazzo Chigi to assess the situation. According to government sources cited by AGI, the director of the ACN and the heads of Italy's intelligence agencies will take part.
Why it matters
The alert points to a vulnerable layer of the food system: the networked control and remote-assistance systems that keep refrigerated and frozen goods at safe temperatures. If those systems are exposed to the internet or connected to wider corporate networks, an intrusion can disrupt operations at individual stores or across a distribution chain. The ACN's warning covers not only retailers but also logistics firms, industrial refrigeration providers and the maintenance companies that service this equipment, reflecting how many parties touch the same infrastructure.
The agency has stepped up monitoring given how widely the sector is spread across the country, saying it aims to identify any further possible cases of attack. It has also scheduled a meeting for Tuesday with industry federations and the main national large-scale retail companies.
Two Italian cases identified
The ACN said it has so far received one incident notification under the NIS (Network and Information Security) framework, from a Tuscan company working in collective catering. It has also detected, but not yet received a formal notification for, an attack on an Emilia-Romagna business that produces frozen foods, AGI reports.
The agency's recommendations focus on containment. Where this has not already been done, it advises companies to move with maximum urgency to check whether control and remote-assistance systems are exposed on the internet and to isolate them in protected environments kept separate from corporate IT networks.
Further measures include strengthening remote access through VPNs and multi-factor authentication, reviewing privileged accounts, and updating or replacing devices that manufacturers no longer support. The agency has offered the availability of its own structures to help companies strengthen their resilience, renew attention on cybersecurity risks in the food supply chain and, where necessary, press for immediate adoption of prevention and mitigation measures.
What to watch
Tuesday's meeting at Palazzo Chigi, and the ACN's session with industry federations and major retailers, should indicate how far the incidents have spread and whether further Italian cases emerge.
