Wave of cyberattacks on supermarket freezers spreads from France to seven more European countries

Dozens of supermarkets in Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland had their refrigerators and freezers disrupted by a cyberattack, Morning Star reported. Belgian manufacturer Sabcobel said the attack switched the evaporators to defrost mode, causing the units to warm, with temperatures in some freezers reportedly reaching 50°C.

It is the same method that hit French stores in October. According to AP, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told parliament that about 700 of the country's 10,000 supermarkets were affected, including 300 Intermarché and Netto stores and 80 Coopérative U stores. Systems of the Ahold Delhaize group in the Netherlands, Belgium and the US were also targeted.

Old devices, new vulnerability

The attackers targeted remote-control modules made by Danfoss and Copeland. Both companies say the affected units are older models that no longer receive security updates; the vulnerabilities have since been fixed. A 2026 report by Claroty had earlier warned that many such controllers were reachable directly from the internet.