Hackers target supermarket fridges in Germany, food thrown away

Police in Germany are investigating several cases in which hackers appear to have raised the temperature of refrigeration systems in supermarkets in Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony). Food spoiled and had to be thrown away, according to a report by the German tech publication t3n.

What happened

According to t3n, the German cases follow a series of cyberattacks on refrigeration systems in supermarkets across Europe. Police say criminals hacked into supermarket freezers and cooling units and turned the temperatures up. The publication describes the damage to the affected shops as considerable.

Nordrhein-Westfalen

Police spokespeople said refrigeration systems in Wuppertal, in Wetter near Hagen and in the Münsterland region were probably disabled by a hacking attack. The temperature was set so high that food spoiled and had to be disposed of.

In Wuppertal, a police spokesperson said a large amount of stock at one supermarket had spoiled, apparently because hackers had raised the temperature of the cooling systems remotely. The attack took place over the weekend and was discovered on the morning of 2 November.

Another victim was a supermarket in Wetter-Volmarstein, in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (Ennepe-Ruhr district), run by the Arbeiterwohlfahrt, one of Germany’s large welfare organisations. According to the store, the attack was actually aimed at the company that maintains its refrigeration systems remotely. Large quantities of food had to be thrown away.

In Raesfeld, in the Münsterland, the cooling at one supermarket also failed. Investigators are now checking whether a hacking attack was the cause.

Niedersachsen

In Lilienthal, near Bremen, a supermarket’s cold chain was temporarily knocked out. Owner Daniel Breiding told reporters: “We had to throw away goods worth more than 360,000 euros.” On the night leading into 2 November, the shop’s serviced counters, cold rooms and freezers all stopped working, and the equipment warmed up to 30 degrees.

A wider European pattern

t3n reports that over the past few days cybercriminals have made fridges and freezers warmer in Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, Luxembourg, Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands, among other countries. A Belgian refrigeration service provider said the systems had been switched into defrost mode remotely.

In mid-October there was already a large-scale attack affecting stores of several major French grocery chains. That attack targeted a technology service provider, and the cybercrime unit of the Paris public prosecutor’s office took over the investigation.

Why it matters if you live in Germany

The incidents show that the equipment keeping food cold in supermarkets is connected to networks and can be controlled from a distance. In at least two of the German cases described by t3n, the weak point was not the shop itself but outside service providers. The store in Wetter-Volmarstein said the attack hit the firm that maintains its cooling systems remotely, and the earlier French attack was also aimed at a technology provider.

For shoppers, the reported effect so far has been spoiled stock that shops had to throw away. For shop owners, the financial losses can be large, as the figure from Lilienthal shows. When the companies hit include smaller businesses or a store run by a welfare organisation, a loss of that size can weigh heavily.

The story also matters for people who run or work in businesses that depend on connected building or operating technology. Karsten Wildberger (CDU), the Bundesdigitalminister (Federal Minister for Digital Affairs), called for greater efforts to protect digital building and operating technology. He pointed out that the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI, the Federal Office for Information Security) had already issued similar calls before the latest attacks.

Speaking to the news channel Welt TV, Wildberger said: “First of all, this shows that we live in a world where cyber security is, unfortunately, becoming more and more important. That also means all companies, and this applies to public administration too, must take more precautions.”

What to watch next

The European Commission has called two crisis meetings. A Commission spokesperson in Brussels said their main purpose was to share information and agree on next steps. Among those taking part in the first round were Enisa, the EU’s cybersecurity agency, the police agency Europol and the relevant Commission experts. The European cyber crisis network has also been activated.

According to the spokesperson, national authorities are leading the investigations, and the Commission is in close contact with them. Who is behind the attacks is still unknown. The spokesperson added that the incidents show Europe has to prepare for attacks of this kind together.

In Germany, the main open questions are whether police confirm a hacking attack as the cause in Raesfeld, whether more stores report similar problems, and whether the cases in different countries can be traced back to a shared service provider or a single group of attackers. Businesses that use remotely maintained cooling or building systems may also want to see what further guidance comes from the BSI and EU bodies as the investigations continue.

Source: t3n