Supermarket fridges hit with cyberattacks across Europe — here’s why

European supermarkets have become the center of another cyberattack, with hackers remotely heating fridges and spoiling food.

The attack caused temperatures in fridges and freezers to rise sharply, with at least one store reporting temperatures of up to 50°C (122°F) and other retailers discarding food. It’s sparked concerns across the retail industry.

Dutch supermarket group Ahold Delhaize reportedly had dozens of Delhaize stores affected in Belgium and Luxembourg.

The Dutch supermarket giant told CNBC that there was an incident with refrigeration systems in dozens of its stores on Monday, which has resulted in food having to be discarded. It said the situation has since returned to normal with stores fully operational.

Meanwhile, Colruyt Group said five of its Spar stores in Belgium were targeted, according to Reuters. French supermarket Carrefour told the BBC that 15 of its Belgian-based stores were attacked too. France’s Intermarché also said 15 stores out of 153 in total were impacted in Belgium.

“In most cases, the security measures in place made it possible to quickly contain the attack,” an Intermarché spokesperson told CNBC. “However, a few stores did suffer some stock losses, although nothing comparable to the attack in mid-October.

“At this stage, the information available to us indicates that the bulk of the attack affected other players in the sector, notably Carrefour and Delhaize,” they added.

IKEA told CNBC that a cyber incident affected refrigerators and freezers at its Mons store in Belgium between Sunday and Monday.

Although the store is still open to customers, the company is inspecting the affected equipment and products as well as checking installations across its other stores in Belgium.

“The incident has a limited impact on the offering in our restaurant and Swedish Food Market,” an IKEA spokesperson said over email. “We are continuing our investigation to determine exactly what happened.”

ICA, Sweden’s biggest grocery retailer, also confirmed that it had been informed of an incident at a “limited number of stores,” which were on networks outside ICA’s central systems. “The incident has affected the stores’ refrigeration and freezer systems. ICA is currently supporting the affected stores in managing the incident,” the company said over email.

Elsewhere, Finnish Kesko supermarket, Irish grocery chain Supervalu and Estonian grocer One Selver also reported disruptions to their refrigeration systems.

Carrefour did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Hundreds of French supermarkets were targeted in October in a cyberattack that caused fires, fridges to overheat and food to spoil.

Intermarché owner Les Mousquetaires told CNBC at…