Britain on alert as hackers shut down supermarket fridges across Europe

Britain has been placed on high alert after hackers shut down supermarket fridges across Europe. Hackers targeted dozens of supermarket fridges in Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Estonia, spoiling large amounts of food by raising temperatures to as high as 50 degrees Celsius. Belgium's Delhaize chain had 40 of its supermarkets affected, with one store reporting more than £83,500 in inedible food. Now, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of the spy agency GCHQ, said it was working with British retailers to prepare against a potential attack. Last month, hundreds of French grocers had their fridges taken offline, with an estimated loss of "tens of millions of euros", according to one supermarket executive. Both incidents have raised fears an attack on British stores could be next. Major chains, including Tesco and Sainsbury's, are said to rely on similar equipment. An NCSC spokesman told The Telegraph: "The NCSC is working with its international partners and industry to fully understand details of an incident." No group or individual has publicly taken responsibility for the attack. Christopher Hansen, the EU commissioner, warned the cyberattacks were a "deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers’ confidence in it". Tom Hegel, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, told Reuters that retailers were an easy target, adding that the lack of financial demands indicated a politically motivated assailant. He said: "An attacker who logs into an exposed control panel leaves almost nothing behind. LATEST WORLD NEWS: "A teenager and an intelligence service would look much the same from the defender's side." Katrien Eggers, spokeswoman for Belgium's Centre for Cybersecurity, warned that artificial intelligence (AI) could increase the rate of sophisticated cyber-attacks. She said: "It is not known who is behind this attack, and it may never be determined." In Ireland, wholesaler Musgrave said the incident affected systems in 13 of its SuperValu stores. A spokesman for Colruyt Group, which operates Spar stores in Belgium, said five of its shops were targeted. And at least one Ikea in Belgium was forced to remove some food products from its refrigeration units, with a spokesman warning that "additional locations may be affected". A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium (BRC) also confirmed that it had been liaising with domestic retailers about the incidents in Europe. Graham Wynn, of the BRC, said: "Retailers invest heavily in their cyber security and are currently working with the National Cyber Security Centre to ensure their fridges and freezers are secure as possible against potential attacks." Follow related topics: