Europe security threats: Cyberattacks, sabotage and unrest

Cyberattacks, bomb threats against passenger flights, civil unrest and suspected acts of sabotage across Europe have raised questions about the continent’s resilience — and how prepared it is to defend itself against modern security threats.

Hackers remotely manipulated refrigeration systems at supermarkets across Europe last week, forcing retailers to discard spoiled food and exposing vulnerabilities in everyday infrastructure.

French blood-bank refrigeration systems were subsequently targeted in what appeared to be a similar incident, while a wave of suspected hoax bomb threats disrupted dozens of flights across the continent, forcing diversions and, in some cases, fighter jet escorts.

The week culminated with bomb threats targeting European news outlets, including the U.K.’s Sky News and Irish public broadcaster RTÉ.

The incidents come against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical tensions and domestic unrest across parts of Europe, with civilian infrastructure potentially becoming an increasingly attractive target for hostile actors.

While authorities have not established who was behind the attacks or whether they were connected, defense and security experts warn that disruption to everyday services can have consequences far beyond the immediate economic damage.

If Russia were responsible, such attacks could be intended to demonstrate the costs of Europe’s continued support for Ukraine, said Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI.

“I think it’s more about cost imposition,” Kaushal told CNBC. “Convincing the European political leadership that the costs of a war can come home to them.”

Russia didn’t immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

On Monday, supermarkets in Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden and the Netherlands found that refrigeration systems had been set to as much as 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit, affecting retailers including Ahold Delhaize, IKEA, Colruyt Group and Carrefour.

It followed an October cyberattack that targeted hundreds of French supermarkets, causing fires, fridges to overheat and food to spoil. The incidents highlighted vulnerabilities in food-supply infrastructure.

They also highlight the role of private companies in national resilience, as internet-connected equipment can be exploited to cause physical disruption.

Fredrik Blix, cybersecurity expert at Visente and associate professor at Stockholm University, told CNBC that the supermarket attacks required very little technical sophistication since vulnerable refrigeration control systems were connected directly to the public internet, allowing potential attackers to find and exploit them.

“These attacks, they don’t really require any specific advanced knowledge to carry out,” he said, adding that some systems were protected only by default passwords or easily guessed credentials.

“This is why this is so cheap to do,” Blix said, warning that the publicity surrounding the incidents could encourage…