UK meat suppliers affected as cyberattacks disrupt freezer systems across Europe

UK meat suppliers have been affected after cyberattacks raised the temperatures of supermarket freezer systems across Europe, according to the National Cyber Security Centre. The agency said the national impact in the UK was minimal, but it is working with affected organisations to contain the problem. Retailers in several European countries reported refrigeration failures on Monday, with some systems rising as high as 50C.

Paul Chichester, the NCSC's director of operations, said the agency was aware of incidents in the UK and was monitoring them closely. He said the organisation was working with affected companies to identify weaknesses in their technology and close them before they could be exploited. He also said the attacks were not AI-enabled and used vulnerabilities that had existed for a long time.

The incidents were reported in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden, and several companies confirmed they had been hacked. Similar problems were reported in France last month, where investigators found the attack on supermarket fridges involved legacy technology connected to the internet with default passwords. No UK grocery chain has been directly affected so far, according to the information released.

The case matters because it shows how cyberattacks can move through supply chains and affect physical infrastructure rather than just data systems. Refrigeration failures can quickly create operational and food-safety risks, even when the immediate national impact is limited. The episode also underlines the exposure of older connected equipment that has not been properly secured or patched.

The NCSC, which is part of GCHQ, said the attacks appeared to exploit long-known weaknesses rather than advanced new tools. Its chief executive, Richard Horne, has described the fridge incidents as the "foothills" of a broader cyber threat, while the agency's chief technology officer has warned that everyday internet-connected devices can be vulnerable. That assessment places the current incidents within a wider pattern of concern about poorly protected industrial and domestic systems.

What remains unclear is who carried out the attacks and whether the UK cases are directly linked to the incidents reported elsewhere in Europe. The NCSC has not attributed the activity to any specific actor, and it said the impact in Britain remained limited at this stage. The agency said it will continue monitoring the situation as affected organisations work to close the gaps that were exposed.

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