Supermarket Freezers Hit by Cyber-Attacks Across Europe: What We Know

What happened to the supermarket freezers?

On Monday, 2 November 2026, fridges and freezers in several European countries ran hot. Units at more than 100 shops were affected, Al Jazeera says ^[1]. In some cases the temperature was raised to as high as 50C (122F), which can make the units melt or catch fire ^[1]. The attack also forced stores to throw away food ^[3].

The attacks followed a larger wave in France. Hundreds of French supermarkets were left with spoiled food and damaged units in October ^[1].

Which countries were affected?

Euronews names supermarket chains in Belgium, Luxembourg, Estonia, the Netherlands and Ireland, and says Sweden was also affected ^[2]. Delhaize and Carrefour in Belgium, Coop in Sweden, and Musgrave's SuperValu stores in Ireland were among the retailers hit ^[1]. The reports do not give one total for countries or stores.

How do the attacks work?

Refrigeration units now connect to the internet so that store owners and third-party managers can monitor them ^[1]. Euronews notes that, in theory, a device connected through an app or a cloud network can be hacked, and that an attacker inside the network can change its settings or switch it off ^[2].

Attackers can reach the controls of fridges and freezers that run on internet software, and raise their temperature to spoil frozen food ^[1]. Pavlina Pavlova of the non-profit Critical Cyber says: “They run on old systems that are deprioritised or impossible to patch” ^[2].

Awais Rashid, a cybersecurity professor at the University of Bristol, says these systems should be managed via secure networks. He adds that several controllers have known vulnerabilities, many are past their end of life, and some use easily guessable passwords ^[1]. Sweden's national cybersecurity centre has also warned of “exposed operational technology devices in Sweden” that must be updated or patched ^[4].

Who is being hit, and how badly?

The reports name several retailers. CNBC reports that Carrefour said 15 of its 700 stores in Belgium were affected, and that IKEA had one store in Belgium hit ^[3]. CNBC reports that Coop in Sweden said 7 of its 800 stores were affected ^[3], while NBC says Coop told the Swedish daily Aftonbladet that six of its stores had been affected ^[4]. Musgrave said 13 of its SuperValu stores in Ireland were affected, and it took some chilled and frozen products off sale ^[4]. Its own monitoring systems raised the alarm, and its investigation is ongoing ^[4].

The damage is not only stock. Luc De Laet, owner of a Belgian butchery chain, said fridges at his Hove store were turned up as high as 18C, and that about €15,000 worth of meat was ruined ^[1][3]. In Sweden, an ICA branch in Sjöbo wrote that its fridges and freezers had been hacked and set to 122 degrees Fahrenheit ^[4]. In Estonia, a company that makes the affected technology said one of its clients was hit in the same way ^[4].

Is this only a European problem?

No. Al Jazeera reports that in August, freezers at a market on an Army base in Arizona went into defrost mode and spoiled all the frozen food they held ^[1]. Citing Reuters, it also reports that the Pentagon considered freezer malfunctions at US military bases to be a suspected hack, and that Pentagon investigators were in contact with French authorities ^[1].

Why are supermarkets easy targets?

Pavlova says shops are hit because they are reachable and undefended ^[2]. Rybczynska says shops did not see themselves as possible targets, and that instructions for attacking these systems are easy to find online ^[2].

Many supermarket refrigeration systems are managed remotely, often by third parties, and have not received the software updates they need ^[1]. The same report notes that the risk is not only financial. It also threatens trust in infrastructure that people rely on every day ^[1].

Who is behind the attacks?

No group has claimed responsibility. Belgium's Centre for Cybersecurity said: “It is not known who is behind this attack, and it may never be determined” ^[3]. Belgium's prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation ^[1]. French authorities believe the October hack involved international actors, but no official has blamed anyone ^[2].

Cybersecurity expert Marta Rybczynska told Euronews that there was no financial motive for the hackers ^[2]. The EU agriculture commissioner, Christophe Hansen, said: “They are a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain” ^[3].

What is still unknown?

Reuters could not establish who was behind the Monday attacks, or whether they were linked to the French attack in October ^[3]. Sweden's national cybersecurity centre said it is working on several incidents affecting grocery stores across the country ^[4]. Until investigators report, the cause of each incident is still open.

Where does AI fit in?

Euronews warns that “AI lowers the barrier to entry for sophisticated attacks”, and that AI can automate attacks at a scale and speed humans cannot match ^[2]. Pavlova adds that patching is struggling to keep pace: “patching at this speed remains a bottleneck for defenders” ^[2].

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre said that by 2028 “it is highly likely that Russia, China and other nation states will routinely use AI-cyber to achieve their geopolitical goals” ^[1]. In Belgium, Katrien Eggers of the Centre for Cybersecurity said she was concerned about the growing number of incidents, in part due to AI. She added that “AI can now be used to successfully exploit these weaknesses” ^[3].

None of the cited sources says AI was used in these freezer attacks. The link is the risk: AI makes it easier to find and exploit exposed controllers. That is a warning from the experts quoted here, not a finding about these attacks.

What should operators do?

The first problem is exposure. Rashid says that in these incidents the systems were accessible on the internet, which is not how such systems should be run ^[1]. Rashid also flags easily guessable passwords as a weakness ^[1]. Pavlova notes that many of the controllers hit in France were older models that no longer receive security updates ^[2].