Hackers Raise Freezer Temperatures at Supermarkets and Food Suppliers Across Europe

Hackers raised the temperatures of freezers at supermarkets and food suppliers in at least 10 European countries, with readings reportedly as high as 50C (122F), forcing retailers to discard food. Problems were reported in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Sweden, and meat suppliers in the UK were also hit. The attacks followed about three weeks after a cyber-attack disrupted as many as 700 French grocery stores, with food losses estimated at tens of millions of euros. EU agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen said the bloc was taking the incidents very seriously and warned of further disruption. Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier declined to assign blame but said the incidents were not isolated. Paul Chichester, the UK National Cyber Security Centre's director of operations, said on Tuesday that the UK impact was minimal and the agency was working with affected firms. Italy's government called a meeting with intelligence chiefs. Who is responsible is not known.

The Guardian, on the left, leads with the UK meat suppliers and the NCSC's assessment of minimal impact, adding experts' warnings that this may be the foothills of a wider threat. It also features findings that decoy fridge controls were hit in ways resembling Russia-linked operations, and that the French attack exploited old internet-connected equipment with default passwords. It names no retailers. Breitbart, on the right, headlines the destruction of millions of dollars of food and calls it a repeat. It cites over 100 targeted sites, names Carrefour, EDEKA, IKEA and others, describes remote defrost commands, and quotes Hansen calling it deliberate sabotage. It says the timing was late Sunday, not Monday, and leaves out the NCSC's minimal-impact view and Russia comparisons. Both agree on the 50C readings, the multi-country spread and Hansen's role. BBC News adds an EU-wide framing and the Italian meeting.