German supermarkets also hit in cyberattacks on refrigeration units

Following a series of cyberattacks on refrigeration systems in European supermarkets, the police are investigating several cases in Germany as well. Criminals are believed to have hacked into freezers in several federal states and raised the temperatures inside them, the authorities said on Tuesday.

The damage to the affected shops is considerable. The European Commission has convened crisis meetings. EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen described it as a targeted attempt to disrupt the food supply and undermine consumer confidence.

However, he added that security of supply is not currently at risk. According to police reports, refrigeration systems in several German regions were presumably paralysed by a cyberattack. Police spokespeople said the temperature had been set so high that food had gone off and had to be disposed of.

Refrigeration systems heated to between 30 and 50 degrees In Lower Saxony, the cold chain at a supermarket in Lilienthal near Bremen was temporarily paralysed. "We had to throw away goods worth more than €360,000 (nearly $403,000)," said owner Daniel Breiding. In the supermarket, service counters, cold stores and deep-freeze cabinets failed in the early hours of Monday.

The systems reportedly heated up to 30 degrees Celsius. In Reisbach in Bavaria, the temperature even reached 50 degrees. A food-processing plant and a supermarket in the districts of Kaiserslautern and Kusel were also affected, according to the West Palatinate Police Headquarters.