This morning, news broke that the cooling systems of companies across Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg, and Ireland had been attacked by hackers. Turns out, at least 17 Dutch companies have also fallen victim.
Hackers were able to access cooling systems across Europe, increasing the temperatures and forcing supermarkets to throw out products.
In the Netherlands’ case, large chains haven’t been affected by the hack. Instead, it appears smaller businesses have fallen victim.
Companies not named
Speaking with NOS, a spokesperson for food supplier Danfoss explains that the hack concerns cooling systems used by smaller neighbourhood shops and butchers.
One of the victims of the hack is a storage facility for frozen products. The hackers set the temperature to -10 instead of -20 degrees. Thankfully, workers were able to intervene quickly enough to resolve the issue.
The spokesperson does not want to name the affected companies.
If measures had been taken, this wouldn’t have happened
According to the spokesperson, measures should have been taken sooner. Last month, Danfoss fell victim to a similar hack in France, forcing many French supermarkets to throw out their produce.
As a result, Danfoss advised Dutch users to disconnect from the internet and reconnect on a secure network. While many large companies did this, some smaller ones didn’t.
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