Fresh cyberattack wave disrupts supermarket refrigeration across Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden

Supermarket refrigeration systems in Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden were disrupted early on Monday in what companies described as an apparent cyberattack. Stores reported sudden temperature spikes in fridges and freezers, raising concerns about food safety and operational continuity. The incidents affected several retail groups at the same time and appeared to target cooling equipment rather than checkout or payment systems.

Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt said an overnight IT incident affected dozens of stores in Belgium and Luxembourg. In Sweden, ICA and Coop reported similar temperature spikes, and one store said it had been hit by a cyberattack. Carrefour Belgium also reported disruption in about 15 of its 700 stores, while an Ikea store in Mons said its freezers had risen in temperature in the early hours of Monday.

The scale of the disruption varied by chain, but the common pattern was a sudden loss of normal control over refrigeration units. A spokesperson for Delhaize said the company had noticed temperature increases in its cooling systems and was investigating. A Belgian refrigeration company that operates Delhaize's systems said the evaporators had been switched to defrost mode, which it described as a cyberattack.

The company behind Carrefour Belgium's stores said there was no other explanation for the incident. The episode matters because supermarkets depend on connected systems to manage stock, preserve food and keep stores running. A successful attack on refrigeration can quickly create commercial losses, food waste and possible safety risks, even if the wider store network remains open.

It also shows how a relatively narrow technical intrusion can affect a basic part of the food supply chain across several countries at once. The incidents follow a similar attack in France in October, when hackers were said to have taken control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets. In that case, temperatures reportedly rose as high as 50C, leading to food losses and fires.

The latest wave suggests that retail refrigeration systems remain exposed to the same kind of interference, especially where equipment can be monitored and controlled remotely. There are also signs that the issue is being treated as part of a broader cybersecurity problem rather than an isolated fault. Ahold Delhaize had already reported a cybersecurity incident to Dutch police last month after detecting suspicious activity in its infrastructure.

It is not yet clear whether the latest disruptions in Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden are linked to that earlier case or to the attack in France. Investigations are continuing, and the main questions now are how many stores were affected, whether any food had to be discarded, and whether the same method was used across all three countries.

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