Supermarkets in France and the Netherlands are dealing with the aftermath of a cyberattack that disrupted refrigeration systems PARIS -- France’s cybersecurity authority has warned that a cyberattack targeting supermarkets may still be ongoing as stores restocked Wednesday after the attack sent refrigerator temperatures soaring, raising concerns about the security of vital food supply chains. The agency said Tuesday night that the attacks were “likely still underway.” It urged stores to reconnect refrigerators to the internet only through a secure VPN connection or protected network, install firmware updates and change passwords. Attackers remotely took control of refrigeration systems in hundreds of supermarkets and independent stores across France in the early hours of Monday.
Temperatures reached 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) for about six hours, forcing stores to discard fresh and frozen goods. The Intermarché supermarket chain reported losses of “tens of millions of euros” in a single day. In the Netherlands, a major supermarket chain was restarting systems it had shut down as a precaution amid what parent company Ahold Delhaize called a “cybersecurity incident.” The incident halted home deliveries and disrupted some supplies to its extensive network of stores across the country.
Authorities in both countries were investigating the cyber incidents, which exposed vulnerabilities in some older refrigeration management systems and in the countries’ highly efficient food supply chains. The Dutch National cybersecurity Center said several cyber incidents had affected Europe’s food sector, but it saw “no reason at this time to believe that these incidents are linked.” The European Union’s police agency, Europol, confirmed to The that it was in contact with authorities in the affected countries but declined to give details, citing an ongoing investigation. No perpetrators have been publicly identified, and no claims of responsibility have been made public.
François Deruty, a former operations director at the French Cybersecurity Agency, said those responsible could range from sophisticated state-sponsored actors to a disgruntled French student. Protests by high school students angry about dilapidated, understaffed schools have roiled France since mid-September. For his frozen food, it was already too late — his freezers' temperature had already spiked to nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
"Unfortunately, we couldn’t save those products,” said Bohne, director of Intermarché La Villette in Paris. In the Netherlands, trays usually brimming with fresh tomatoes lay empty on Wednesday in an Albert Heijn supermarket on the outskirts of The Hague. Elsewhere in the store, staff were busy stocking shelves, and most products were in plentiful supply.
Pieter Zwaan, a senior researcher at the respected Clingendael Institute, recently co-authored a report on food supplies in the Netherlands, where supermarkets rely on “just in time” deliveries multiple times each day to keep shelves filled. To mitigate the risks of a prolonged supply chain disruption, the report recommended Dutch households build up reserves that would keep food on the table for eight days — the current government recommendation is a three-day stockpile. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said that about 700 of the country’s 10,000 supermarkets were affected.
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