Three weeks ago there was a cyberattack which targeted the freezers in French supermarkets. Essentially the freezers were told to go into a defrost mode which resulted in the temperatures going up and spoiling the food inside. Other countries were also targeted at the time.
Hackers raised the temperature of refrigerators and freezers at hundreds of French supermarkets to as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, causing fires and spoiling food.
The Paris prosecutor's office said on Monday that a "large-scale" attack was "affecting connected refrigerators in several major food retailers across France", leading to food losses and fires...
Felix Aime, a senior cyber threat intelligence analyst at Sekoia Threat Detection and Research, said Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium had also been affected.
Hundreds of supermarkets were impacted in France and by the next morning an untold amount of frozen food had to be thrown out.
If shop managers first assumed it was an isolated failure, it soon became clear up to 700 stores – including those from the Intermarché, Coopérative U, Carrefour, Leclerc and Monoprix chains along with a number of smaller independent shops – had been victims of a cyber-attack.
No one was immediately sure who was behind it but some observers described it as a destabilization attack.
Gérôme Billois, a partner in the cybersecurity and technology company Wavestone, said the hack had the hallmarks of political sabotage...
“As for the attack’s signature, the most likely scenario is still a destabilisation attack – one designed to convey the message to populations that they are not safe, to convey the impression that the government is falling apart, and ultimately to instil fear.
“Currently there are two international actors known for doing this sort of thing: Iran and Russia.”
Today there seems to have been a follow-up attack taking place at more supermarkets across Europe.
Dozens of supermarkets in Belgium and Sweden have been hit by a suspected cyber-attack affecting its refrigerators and freezers.
Around 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, while several ICA and Coop shops in Sweden were hit. Thirteen SuperValu shops have also been impacted in Ireland.
Millions of euros worth of food has had to be thrown away, according to local media reports, with one ICA store in Sweden saying temperatures for its freezers had been set to 50 C (122F).
There are dozens of stories about today's incident, but so far as I can tell, no one is willing to offer an opinion about who is behind it. All most of the stories say is that the attacks are under investigation and no one has claimed responsibility.
That silence suggests to me that they already suspect who is behind it but are hesitant to say so. There's only one country that has been carrying out hybrid warfare attacks on Europe over the past several months. We all know which country that is.
All of this could be connected to recent warnings from countries around the world about keeping 72-hours worth of food on hand in case of an emergency.
Around the world, governments are increasingly advising their citizens to have provisions in the case of an emergency such as war, extreme weather and cybersecurity threats.
Different countries advise different levels of preparedness. Having emergency supplies for a three-day period is commonly advised. France and the U.K. recently advised people to have supplies for a period of 72 hours ready...
Canada, Japan, Mexico and the Netherlands also advise an emergency kit for a 72-hour period. Other countries suggest a longer preparedness period, with Sweden and Norway advising having supplies for about one week, and Germany advising supplies for up to 10 days.
Here's Newsweek's map of the countries that have issued warnings about being prepared to have a supply of food and water.
“Being prepared means having your own food, water and other supplies to last for several days,” official US guidance states. https://t.co/LepPeuxkp2
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) October 28, 2026
To be clear, I'm speculating about the connection between the cyberattacks and the warnings. But obviously a lot of the countries do overlap. I just get the feeling that the western governments around the world are worried about something and aren't really telling us what it is. It's something to keep an eye on.