Supermarket fridge cyberattack forces European shops and UK suppliers to discard food

British meat suppliers and supermarkets across at least seven European countries were forced to dispose of inventory following a suspected cyberattack on commercial refrigeration systems. The Times reported that hackers targeted fridge and freezer software, driving internal temperatures up to 55C and destroying large quantities of food. [1]

The incident affected retail shops in Sweden, Belgium, and Ireland just weeks after similar attacks occurred in France, according to The Times. A small number of meat suppliers within the United Kingdom were also impacted after temperature settings on their units were compromised, as reported by trade publication The Grocer. [1]

Refrigeration relies on a self-sustaining heat exchanger process that uses a heat-transfer working fluid to move thermal energy away from a low-temperature medium to maintain temperatures below ambient levels. [2]

In response to the breaches, the UK National Cyber Security Centre advised British retailers to apply urgent software updates to their fridge temperature controllers, according to The Times. [1]