Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) - Grocery stores from Sweden to Portugal were hit Monday by a suspected cyberattack on their freezer systems, in what the EU denounced as a deliberate attempt to disrupt the bloc’s food chain.

Supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands were among at least eight countries affected in the incident, which came three weeks after a cyberattack caused mass disruption in French grocery stores.

Food retailers were forced to throw out produce that had spoiled or was at risk of spoiling after refrigerator temperatures soared overnight.

No one had yet claimed responsibility for Monday’s incidents, nor for the October 12 attack on major French retailers that likewise forced hundreds of stores to toss out food.

The EU’s food and agriculture commissioner, Christophe Hansen, said the bloc was taking the incidents “very seriously”, calling the repeated cyberattacks “deeply concerning”.

“They are a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers’ confidence in it – a warning that we must take seriously,” Hansen said in a statement.

In Belgium, where dozens of stores across multiple grocery chains reported disruptions, federal prosecutors announced the opening of an investigation, without qualifying the incident as a cyberattack at this stage.

But several of the chains affected were unequivocal.

“It’s a cyberattack, there is no other reason,” said Mich Vergauwen, a spokesman for Carrefour Belgium which reported disruption in about 15 of its 700 stores.

An Ikea Belgium spokeswoman likewise said its store in southwestern Mons was hit by a cyberattack, causing freezer temperatures to rise suddenly in the early hours of Monday.

- ‘Cyber incident’ -

Belgian industrial refrigeration group Sabcobel told AFP it had begun securing its installations after the October 12 attack in France, but around 10 percent were still not fixed and some were in the shops affected on Monday.

While they did not explicitly call it a cyberattack, chains Delhaize, Colruyt and Intermarche also experienced technical problems with fridges in dozens of stores across Belgium, with four Delhaize stores in Luxembourg also affected.

Musgrave, which owns Supervalu in Ireland, said 13 of its stores were affected by a cyber-incident. A small number of corner shops in the Netherlands also suffered disruptions.

In Portugal, the Mosqueteiros group confirmed to AFP incidents at seven Intermarche stores linked to a cyberattack, which “appears to have targeted an external service provider responsible for managing the refrigeration systems.”

And in Sweden, chain Coop confirmed six of its around 800 stores had been hit.

“We can confirm that it is a cyber incident. The problem has now been resolved and the fridges and freezers are working as normal,” spokesman Carlos Cancino told AFP.

He said Coop did not know who was behind the attack, but noted that the affected stores had been connected to a 4G mobile network, not the updated 5G system, which made them “more exposed” to hackers.

- ‘Vulnerabilities’ -

Swedish chain Ica also said “a limited number” of its stores experienced refrigeration problems, without confirming a cyberattack.

According to Ica spokesperson Helena Johansson, the affected stores were all connected to an external refrigeration control system provided by Danish manufacturer Danfoss – the same supplier targeted in the October 12 cyberattack on French retailers.

She referred all queries to Danfoss, which had yet to respond to an AFP request for a comment.

In Finland, irregular temperatures had also been detected in a few smaller grocery stores belonging to the Kesko group.

“We are currently investigating the cause, and interference via the network has not yet been ruled out,” Petri Kayhko, head of Kesko’s corporate security, told AFP.

Roni Kokkola, an information security specialist at the National Cyber Security Centre at Finland’s Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, would not rule out cyber interference “as far as Finland is concerned.”

“We’ve seen this in Europe in the past few months, so it spreading beyond France to other countries has been expected,” he told AFP.

“Nowadays it’s very typical that all kinds of vulnerabilities are being exploited ever more actively and rapidly.”

In Estonia, at least one supermarket was attacked by hackers who raised the temperature in the refrigeration units to 50C, public broadcaster ERR reported.

The units were older models delivered by Danfoss, similar to the ones targeted in the France attack, Jann Mutso, director of Kitman Coldtech, a manufacturer and distributor of advanced refrigeration systems, told ERR.

“The handwriting is the same,” Mutso said.

po-bur-ec/rmb