'All this food is now useless': Piles of rubbish after shop freezers hit by cyber-attack

On November 2, 2026, temperatures in refrigerators and freezers at multiple grocery stores across Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, and potentially other European countries soared, with some reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 F). This incident follows a similar large-scale cyberattack last month that affected hundreds of supermarkets in France, causing food spoilage and fires. Swedish retailers ICA and Coop reported being impacted, with at least one ICA store explicitly blaming the rise in temperatures on hackers via social media. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in Sweden confirmed multiple incidents and is responding to them. While authorities have not identified who could be behind these attacks or their motives, the EU has condemned what it called a deliberate attempt to disrupt food supply chains and erode consumer confidence.