Suspected freezer hack hits supermarkets in Belgium, Sweden

Supermarkets in Belgium and Sweden reported sudden temperature changes in their fridges and freezers on Monday, raising fears of a cyberattack like the one that hit French retailers last month, Bloomberg reports.

Delhaize, owned by Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize, confirmed that an “IT incident” hit refrigeration systems at about 40 of its Belgian stores on Sunday night, according to Belgian newswire Belga.

A small number of Carrefour Belgium and Spar outlets also reported similar problems.

In Sweden, freezers lost power at an ICA store in Stockholm.

In October, hackers remotely took over refrigeration control systems in France, pushing temperatures as high as 50°C. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said about 700 of the country’s 10,000 supermarkets were affected.

Ahold Delhaize was also hit by a separate cyberattack in October that forced it to take IT systems offline across Europe and the United States.