Suspected cyberattack hits supermarket refrigerators in seven European countries
About 40 Delhaize stores in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected; food losses total millions of euros, according to the BBC.
Translated from the Portuguese original by the Panorama newsroom. Read in Portuguese
Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.
Dozens of supermarkets in seven European countries were affected by a suspected cyberattack on refrigerators and freezers, BBC News Mundo reported. About 40 stores of the Delhaize chain in Belgium and Luxembourg were hit, along with smaller units in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.
Sabcobel, the Belgian company that makes part of the equipment, said the evaporators went into defrost mode and heated up, a method believed to be the same as in an incident last month that hit hundreds of French supermarkets. Local press reports food discarded worth several million euros.
The company's president, Stephan Moelans, told the Belgian news agency that it was a cyberattack and that the team worked through the night and the entire morning to disconnect the units from the network.
According to him, since the French attack in early October, Sabcobel had been trying to protect the equipment, but the units required physical modifications, not just software updates.
Most European supermarkets have internet-connected refrigeration, which allows remote maintenance, the BBC explained.