Supermarkets in Europe and food supply chains in the UK have been cyber-attacked. Supermarket fridges and freezers in several European countries were targeted in a major cyber attack on Monday. This caused the temperature of the cold storage system to suddenly rise and spoil millions of euros worth of fresh and frozen food. The heat of the attack has now reached the UK meat industry. According to the British Association of Independent Meat Suppliers, some of its more than 300 member businesses have been victims of this cyber attack.
However, AIMS has clarified that the meat kept at the premises of the affected businesses has not gone bad. The organization’s head of communications, Tony Goodger, said it was a warning to the entire food industry. Any business involved in a supply chain can be a target of a cyber attack. In such a situation, all companies need to be careful about the security of their systems.
The attack was carried out by putting the refrigerator on defrost mode.
In this cyber attack, vulnerabilities in the technology used to remotely control supermarket fridges and freezers were exploited. According to Belgian refrigeration company Subcobel, the attackers put refrigerator units on defrost mode. This increased their temperature and made it difficult to preserve food.
The attack affected around 40 Delhaize supermarket stores in Belgium and Luxembourg. Apart from this, some stores in Sweden, Ireland, Netherlands, Estonia and Finland were also affected. Many retailers had to throw away spoiled food. Some companies have reported losses of millions of euros. Earlier in early October, hundreds of supermarkets and food suppliers in France were similarly targeted. Cyber security researchers discovered vulnerabilities in these systems months ago.
Risk increases due to outdated systems and AI
Chief Executive of UK’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) Dr. Richard Horne said the agency had also received information on several cases in Britain where technical vulnerabilities were exploited. He said work was done throughout the night to alert potentially affected establishments.
According to Horne, many companies continue to use outdated technology systems. They neither update them nor keep them in a secure environment separate from the Internet. This makes it easy for hackers to penetrate the system. He warned that with the help of AI, cyber attackers can find and exploit such vulnerabilities faster than ever before.
UK supermarkets also on alert
There are currently no signs of major damage from the attack in Britain. However, NCSC has alerted the potentially affected institutions. According to the British Retail Consortium, retailers are investing in cyber security and working closely with the NCSC. These include major supermarkets such as Asda, Lidl, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
Horn advised companies to review the security of the technology they use in their business and invest in updating outdated systems. He says that cyber security is no longer an issue only for IT companies, but is the responsibility of every business related to the food supply chain.
