On Monday, Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt reported that an incident involving their information technology systems caused damage to refrigerators and freezers overnight in dozens of stores across Belgium and Luxembourg. Stores affiliated with Ikea and Coop in Sweden also reported rising temperatures in their refrigerators, attributing the issue to a cyber attack.
The incidents follow a cyber attack in France last month, when police said cybercriminals had taken control of cooling units in hundreds of major stores, causing temperatures to soar to as high as 50 degrees Celsius and resulting in fires and food losses.
Ahold reported a cybersecurity incident to Dutch police last month after detecting suspicious activity within its infrastructure.
A spokesperson for the Delhaize chain said the company noticed rising temperatures in its cooling systems on Monday and was investigating the matter.
Stefaan Molnaers, CEO of Belgian refrigeration systems company SABCOBEL, which operates Delhaize's systems, told the Belga news agency that the incident was caused by a cyber attack, as the unit evaporators had been switched to defrost mode. Molnaers' office declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
A spokesperson for the Colruyt Group, which operates Spar stores in Belgium under a franchise system, said the cooling systems in five stores had been targeted in the attack.
Authorities have not identified any party that may have been behind last month's incidents, and no one has claimed responsibility for them.
