Several stores of ICA, one of Sweden’s largest grocery chains, threw out refrigerated and frozen stock on Monday after operators said hackers disrupted their cooling systems overnight.
ICA Kvantum Sjöbo described what happened in a Facebook post. Someone hacked its coolers and freezers during the night, the store wrote, and set the temperature to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Staff are throwing out all affected goods. The store stayed closed through the morning, planned to reopen at 9 a.m. local time, and apologized to customers.
Manager Rickard Nilsson said staff could not change the temperature settings. The store lost food worth hundreds of thousands of kronor.
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Stores in Tomelilla and Simrishamn reported freezer failures and opened late. Others in Brösarp, Hammenhög and Sankt Olof, plus an ICA Nära store in Böda on Öland, also reported being hit.
ICA’s corporate office has not confirmed an attack. Press officer Gustaf Nilsson said a “limited number of stores” had an overnight incident that hit their cooling equipment, and that the group is assisting them. He did not give a count.
Coop press officer Carlos Cancino confirmed that six of its stores in the central part of the country also had refrigerator and freezer problems.
A similar attack on the night of October 11 heated refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets to 50 degrees Celsius, and stores threw out food. ICA has not said whether the Swedish incidents are connected.
Read: Paris Prosecutors Open Probe After Hackers Heat French Store Fridges to 50C
