How did hackers attack supermarket fridges and freezers across Europe?

BBC senior technology reporter Shona McCallum said dozens of supermarkets in seven European countries, most of them in Belgium and Luxembourg, had their internet-connected refrigeration systems tampered with. In one Swedish store freezers were set to 50 degrees Celsius, food worth thousands of euros was thrown away and some shops closed. It followed a similar wave that hit hundreds of French supermarkets the month before, where some of the affected equipment was running outdated software.

• Refrigeration is often online so engineers can check temperatures and do maintenance without visiting the store.
• McCallum advised taking systems off the public internet, installing updates, changing weak passwords and replacing equipment that can no longer be updated.
• French cybersecurity authorities had warned businesses to check their refrigeration systems.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-11-02). Read the whole episode summary →

▸More from this episode