London, 2 November 2026 — EBM Newsdesk Analysis — By Katie Winearls
Three weeks ago, a cyber attack on French supermarket freezers looked like a one-off. It no longer does.
Between Sunday night and Monday morning, hackers took control of refrigeration systems at dozens of supermarkets in Belgium and Sweden. They pushed freezer and fridge temperatures as high as 55°C, and some Belgian media reported 70°C. Delhaize has about 40 stores affected and Carrefour Belgium at least 15. Spar outlets and the butchery group De Laet en Van Haver have also reported problems. In Sweden, Ica stores in Sjöbo and Tomelilla stayed shut on Monday morning and Coop confirmed six affected sites.
“We have identified an IT incident affecting the refrigeration systems,” Ahold Delhaize said, according to Euronews. The Sjöbo store manager put it more bluntly: “We can’t adjust the temperatures, we can’t change them.” He said hot air was blowing into the freezers.
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SubscribeFrance Was the Warning
On 12 October, hundreds of French stores belonging to Intermarché, Carrefour, Monoprix and Coopérative U had their refrigeration systems overridden overnight. Food spoiled, some units caught fire, and the Paris prosecutor described the attack as “large-scale”.
France’s CERT-FR traced the weak point to internet-connected remote controllers, including Danfoss AK-SM and AK-SC units and Copeland and Dixell xweb devices. Many were running outdated firmware, and some models had reached end of life and no longer receive security updates. It has not yet been confirmed that the Belgian and Swedish stores use the same equipment, but the pattern is hard to ignore.
The concern goes beyond Europe. Fortune reports that the Pentagon is investigating August refrigeration failures at more than half a dozen US military commissaries as a possible cyber attack. There is no evidence yet that the incidents are linked.
State Sabotage or Bored Teenagers?
No one has claimed responsibility. Some analysts see the hallmarks of hybrid warfare: disruptive, deniable and aimed at everyday life. Others, including Ken Munro of Pen Test Partners, point out that the flaw is so easy to exploit that “kids messing around” could be behind it.
For retailers, the answer matters less than the damage. Belgian stores have already thrown away an estimated €100,000 of food, and early estimates put total losses in the millions of euros. That comes on top of the costs of closures, engineer call-outs and lost trust.
The Overlooked Attack Surface
This is the kind of threat Microsoft’s chief security adviser for Europe has warned about. Companies spend heavily protecting tills, payment systems and customer data, while the boxes running their freezers sit on the open internet with factory passwords. Like Europe’s hospitals struggling to cut off hacked suppliers, supermarkets depend on third-party equipment they barely monitor.
Insurers will take note. Cyber claims were already rising before anyone thought of hacking a freezer. And grocers are under pressure as it is: Tesco’s exit from Central Europe shows how thin margins have become.
The attack itself is simple, and that’s what makes it worrying. Someone has found a cheap way to cause real economic harm across borders and has now done it twice in three weeks. Every European grocer should be auditing its refrigeration controllers today, taking them offline or patching them. If they don’t, the next attack is a question of when, not if.
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