Suspected cyberattacks hit supermarket refrigerators in four European countries, TechCrunch reports

A second wave of suspected cyberattacks has hit supermarket refrigerators in Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden, TechCrunch reported on Nov. 2. The outlet said temperatures rose and food spoiled at dozens of stores. The "suspected" label is TechCrunch's, and the details below come from its report.

What TechCrunch reports

According to TechCrunch, supermarket groups Ahold Delhaize and Colruyt confirmed the hacks overnight. We reviewed no direct statement from either company. TechCrunch also cites Reuters as saying that a Belgian company that operates Delhaize's systems said the hackers had changed settings to defrost. We could not find the Reuters report.

TechCrunch reports that stores have thrown out goods that defrosted or were otherwise no longer consumable.

The outlet says the new attacks follow earlier refrigerator hacks in France last month. It says those hacks spoiled food at hundreds of supermarkets by deliberately raising temperatures.

The equipment involved

TechCrunch says security researchers attributed the problem to internet-connected refrigeration units made by the Danish company Danfoss. According to the report, Danfoss was no longer providing security updates for those units. TechCrunch also says the security company Claroty had warned in August that the units were at risk of remote hacks and outages. The article gives no year for that warning. It does not include comment from Danfoss or Claroty.

What we don't know yet

• Who is responsible. TechCrunch's report does not identify the attacker or the exact method for the European attacks, and it describes them as suspected.
• Direct confirmation. The account of the company confirmations comes from TechCrunch. The statement about changed settings is attributed by TechCrunch to Reuters. We did not review statements from Ahold Delhaize, Colruyt, Danfoss or Claroty.
• Which countries. Ireland is named in the TechCrunch report. A separate roundup citing Politico lists Belgium, Sweden and Luxembourg but not Ireland, so we have no second source for Ireland.
• Scale. TechCrunch gives "dozens of stores" for this wave and "hundreds" for the French wave. We found no second source for either figure and no total loss figure.
• Timing of the Claroty warning. The article gives no year for it.