Italy holds security talks after European freezer cyberattacks

The attacks in recent days, for which no one has claimed responsibility, have prompted the EU to warn of a deliberate attempt to disrupt its food supply chain.

Italy's government held emergency talks with intelligence chiefs on Tuesday following cyberattacks on supermarket freezer systems in at least nine European countries.

The incident came three weeks after a cyberattack disrupted French grocery stores and led hundreds of outlets to throw away spoiled stock. (Unsplash )

The attacks in recent days, for which no one has claimed responsibility, have prompted the EU to warn of a deliberate attempt to disrupt its food supply chain.

Supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden reported refrigeration problems that forced some retailers to discard food after temperatures rose.

The incident came three weeks after a cyberattack disrupted French grocery stores and led hundreds of outlets to throw away spoiled stock.

The EU food and agriculture commissioner, Christophe Hansen, said on Monday the bloc was taking the incidents "very seriously".

"They are a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers' confidence in it -- a warning that we must take seriously," Hansen said.

Giovanni Arena, a representative of Federdistribuzione, a large retailers' association, told ANSA news agency he was aware of around 20 stores affected in Sicily.

"Many groups have not been hacked because they have advanced, up-to-date security systems," he said.

Giuseppe Spadaro, director of a group that manages the Coop supermarkets in Sicily, said four of the company's 300 stores were affected by the cyberattack.

"We estimate the damage at several thousands of euros. We had to throw away everything. The shelves are empty. We are waiting for suppliers today to replenish the stock," he was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera daily.

"To be honest, we did not think that as supermarkets we would be targeted by a cyberattack. This shows that any connected device can become a target. So we will invest more -- that is essential," he said.

Carlos Cancinos, spokesperson for the Coop chain in Sweden, told AFP on Tuesday that there had been no further attacks overnight and that the affected shops had resumed "normal functioning".

"We have more than 800 stores. Of these, only seven were affected by yesterday's attack. So the impact is very limited when you look at the network as a whole," Cancinos said.

Refrigeration equipment and freezers affected overnight from Monday to Tuesday were connected to "old 4G networks", he said.

"We have launched a major programme to modernise a large part of our store network, equipping connected refrigerators and ensuring that they operate via 5G networks. This helps to solve a large share of problems of this kind," he said.

Exploiting vulnerabilities

Belgium was among the hardest-hit countries, with dozens of stores across several grocery chains reporting refrigeration failures. Federal prosecutors opened an investigation.

"It's a cyberattack, there is no other reason," Mich Vergauwen, a spokesman for Carrefour Belgium, which reported disruption in about 15 of its 700 stores, said on Monday.

Furniture chain Ikea in Belgium said its Mons outlet also experienced a cyberattack that caused freezer temperatures to rise.

Delhaize, Colruyt and Intermarche also reported refrigeration problems at stores in Belgium, while four Delhaize outlets in Luxembourg were affected.

In Finland, irregular temperatures were also detected in a few smaller grocery stores belonging to the Kesko group.

Roni Kokkola, an information security specialist at the National Cyber Security Centre at Finland's Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, said cyberattacks elsewhere in Europe had been "expected" since those in France.

"Nowadays it's very typical that all kinds of vulnerabilities are being exploited ever more actively and rapidly," he told AFP on Monday.