Hacker attack spreads across Europe – tropical heat in the freezer sections

The suspected hacker attack on ICA in Skåne is not the only one. Grocery stores in several European countries have experienced problems with their refrigerators and freezers. In Sweden, temperatures have risen to 50 degrees, and millions of kronor worth of food have been ruined.

Overnight on Monday, several ICA and Coop stores in Sweden were targeted by suspected hacker attacks. Problems have been reported in Skåne, Stockholm, Karlstad, and on Öland, among other places. According to Coop, Bloomberg confirmed that seven stores were the target of a hacker attack.

Belgium, Ireland, Finland, and Estonia have also experienced similar problems. In Belgium, 15 Carrefour stores have been affected, and in Ireland, 13 SuperValu stores have experienced problems with their refrigerators and freezers. Last month, approximately 700 French grocery stores were targeted by hacker attacks.

Store Manager: ”A Form of Terrorism”

At the ICA Kvantum in Sjöbo, the temperature in the freezers has risen to 50 degrees. Hundreds of thousands of kronor worth of food has been ruined, and store manager Rickard Nilsson believes the losses could be even greater. Staff have been forced to throw away large quantities of meat, fish, and other food items.

– Personally, I think it's a form of terrorism, Nilsson tells Daily News.

In Mörlunda, Småland, the ICA store owner Thommie Sundberg He was forced to empty all seven of his freezers. He has called in family members and technicians to get the store back in order. It is still unclear when customers will be able to shop there again.

Outdated systems may be to blame

The Cybersecurity Expert Emil Olofsson suspects that outdated control systems with poor security may be behind the attacks. According to him, hackers in France were able to gain access to the cooling systems by guessing passwords. The same problem may exist in Swedish stores.

Stores can reduce the risk of new attacks by updating their systems, using stronger passwords, and limiting their internet connectivity. It is still unknown who is behind these incidents.

What does your emergency preparedness plan look like?

The scenes unfolding in stores are reminiscent of a crisis scenario, where infrastructure has been knocked out by war or a natural disaster. Food deliveries have stopped, and store shelves are empty. What has happened to grocery stores across the country shows just how extremely vulnerable the food supply is—and that all it takes now is a hacker attack to destroy millions of kronor worth of food.

It may therefore be time for Swedes to review their emergency preparedness. This time, the attack does not appear to pose a threat to Swedish society as a whole, but next time it might have a more significant impact. What would you do if such a situation arose? Frihetsnytt has produced a series of articles on emergency preparedness, and one of them deals specifically with matt.