German Supermarkets Also Targeted in Cyberattacks on Refrigeration Units

Following a series of cyberattacks on refrigeration systems in European supermarkets, the police are investigating several cases in Germany as well.  Criminals are believed to have hacked into freezers in several federal states and raised the temperatures inside them, the authorities said on Tuesday. The damage to the affected shops is considerable.

The European Commission has convened crisis meetings. EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen described it as a targeted attempt to disrupt the food supply and undermine consumer confidence. However, he added that security of supply is not currently at risk.

According to police reports, refrigeration systems in several German regions were presumably paralysed by a cyberattack. Police spokespeople said the temperature had been set so high that food had gone off and had to be disposed of.

Refrigeration systems heated to between 30 and 50 degrees In Lower Saxony, the cold chain at a supermarket in Lilienthal near Bremen was temporarily paralysed. “We had to throw away goods worth more than ?360,000 (nearly $403,000),” said owner Daniel Breiding.  In the supermarket, service counters, cold stores and deep-freeze cabinets failed in the early hours of Monday. The systems reportedly heated up to 30 degrees Celsius.

In Reisbach in Bavaria, the temperature even reached 50 degrees. A food-processing plant and a supermarket in the districts of Kaiserslautern and Kusel were also affected, according to the West Palatinate Police Headquarters.

In recent days, cybercriminals had caused fridges and freezers to heat up in European countries including Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, Luxembourg, Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands. According to a Belgian refrigeration services provider, the systems were remotely switched to defrost mode.

There had already been a large-scale attack in mid-October affecting stores belonging to several major French food retail chains. The attack targeted a technical service provider. The cybercrime department of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation.

EU crisis meeting convened According to reports, an initial EU meeting held on Tuesday morning was attended by agencies including the EU Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA), the police authority Europol and relevant experts from the Commission.

The European Cyber Crisis Network has also been activated. A spokesman said that investigations into the attacks are being carried out by the national authorities, and the Commission is in close contact with them. It is as yet unclear who is behind the attacks.

However, the incidents have shown that Europe must work together to prepare for such attacks.

Speaking on the news channel Welt TV, Germany’s Federal Minister for Digital Affairs Karsten Wildberger said: “First and foremost, this shows that we live in a world where the issue of cybersecurity is - unfortunately - becoming increasingly important. It also means that all businesses, and this applies to the public sector too, must take greater precautions.”