Dozens of Belgian grocery stores and an Ikea superstore saw their refrigerator temperatures soar on Monday, with several of the firms involved confirming they had been hit by a cyberattack.

It is the latest in a series of cyberattacks on store refrigerators and suspicious actions around the supermarkets across Europe.

A handful of Swedish supermarkets saw temperatures in their refrigerators and freezers soar early on Monday, Swedish chains Ica and Coop said without giving a cause. Major French retailers said on October 12 that hundreds of store refrigeration systems were hit by a cyberattack, which forced them to throw out spoiled food and raised food security fears.

Carrefour Belgium reported disruption in about 15 of its 700 stores in Belgium. "It's a cyberattack, there is no other reason," said Mich Vergauwen, a spokesman for Carrefour Belgium.

An Ikea Belgium spokeswoman likewise said a cyberattack hit its store in Mons, southwestern Belgium, causing the temperature of freezers to rise suddenly in the early hours of Monday.

It is the only Ikea store affected because it uses a different service provider than others in Belgium, the spokeswoman added, without identifying the provider.

The Delhaize supermarket chain meanwhile said refrigeration systems in "dozens" of its stores were affected by an IT incident.

The Colruyt and Intermarche supermarket chains likewise said they had been hit by technical problems affecting fridges in five and around 15 stores respectively, without confirming if a cyberattack was suspected.

"In some cases, it involved only a single refrigerator, so the impact was quite limited," an Intermarche spokesman said, adding that the incidents took place overnight Sunday-to-Monday.

The issue is not limited to Belgium.

The Swedish chains ICA and Coop said they were looking into the cause of their temperature soars that forced them to throw away food.

One ICA store at Sjobo in southern Sweden, posted on Facebook, however, that its fridges and freezers had "been hacked and they set the temperature at 50 degrees" Celsius.

More than 500 supermarkets were targeted in the French attack on October 12. The equipment was provided by Danish company, Danfoss. (AFP)


Edited by Aaron Tam