In the night from Sunday to Monday, refrigeration systems in Belgian shops were manipulated remotely. Diego Louwers, manager of the Proxy Delhaize in Overijse, found all his fridges in defrost mode and said he had to throw away all his goods.
Delhaize says about forty of its stores are affected and speaks of an “IT incident”. Carrefour reports fifteen stores, and according to Colruyt group, about fifteen Intermarché and five Spar stores are hit. Ikea Mons confirmed a cyber incident with limited impact.
Stephan Moelans, director of refrigeration specialist Sabcobel, says the attackers used the same method as in the French attack on hundreds of stores in early October. They remotely activated the defrost mode of the evaporators, which raised temperatures.
According to Moelans, a software update is not enough, because installations must be physically modified. The simplest solution is managing fridges over a secure internet connection. In France, overall losses were estimated at tens of millions of euros.
Supermarkets in other countries also report disruptions, but a link remains to be determined. Check which operational equipment in your organisation is reachable remotely and whether it is secured.
Read RTL.be article for more information.
