A number of UK meat suppliers said their fridges heated up overnight as they were impacted by cyber attacks targeting software used by supermarkets and food suppliers across Europe.
asserted
they → say → Europe
The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (Aims) said a few of its roughly 300 members had “unexpectedly become collateral” from the hack.
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few → say → hack
Some members saw fridge systems begin to defrost on Monday night, and another saw their unit rise up to 100C in temperature.
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unit → see → temperature
But because of the way abattoirs are typically run, the units were empty at the time – so there was no impact on any food produce.
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units → run → produce
A spokesman for Aims said: “None who have been affected have lost any meat, but once again this must act as a reminder to all in the food industry, at whatever point in the supply chain they are, that their businesses may be seen by some as targets.”
uncertain
businesses → say → targets
“We urge our members and the wider industry to be vigilant,” he added.
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he → urge → members
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it is working with the firms affected and that the national impact is “minimal”.
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impact → say → firms
Speaking at the launch of the NCSC annual report on Tuesday, Paul Chichester, director of operations, said: “We’re aware of those incidents in the UK, and obviously we’re working with the affected organisations.
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we → speak → organisations
We’ll keep monitoring that.
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We → keep → that
He went on: “We’re working with organisations identifying existing vulnerabilities in the UK and trying to get those closed before somebody exploits them.”
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somebody → go → them
It is understood that no major supermarket chain has been directly impacted by the hack.
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chain → understand → hack
But retailers are being urged to monitor their systems closely for potential risks and ensure their software is up to date, as well as having contingency plans in place in case food produce needs to be relocated.
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produce → urge → place
Graham Wynn, assistant director of regulatory affairs at the British Retail Consortium, said: “Retailers invest heavily in their cybersecurity and are currently working with the NCSC to ensure their fridges and freezers are secure as possible against potential attacks.”
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fridges → say → attacks
Rupert Ashby, chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation, said retailers “across the supply chain are taking cyber security extremely seriously”.
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retailers → say → security
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“Members are looking closely at their freezer provision and assessing how vulnerable their systems might be,” he said.
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he → read → provision
Organic fruit and vegetable wholesaler Langridge Organic had six of their 10 fridges hacked into on Monday morning, managing director Alex Pearce told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, but no stock was affected.
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stock → have → programme
He said manual fridge checks showed some with abnormal temperatures and defrost settings, so he suspected they were being hacked and unplugged the Cat cable.
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they → say → cable
“I reckon I caught them by luck right in the middle of it being hacked.
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it → reckon → middle
Unplugging it stopped the other fridges and we were able to quite quickly … get into the menus and start resetting the settings, but
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we → unplug → settings
there were six, or seven or eight parameters in each of the fridges which had been changed to make our lives a bit difficult on a Monday morning.”
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lives → be → morning
Dr Horne earlier told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “There are handfuls of organisations in the UK we’ve alerted and we’re aware of a couple of impacts.”
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we → tell → impacts
Asked if the attack reinforces warnings from the Defence Secretary that people in the UK should stockpile, he said: “Absolutely.
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he → ask → UK
And we saw criminal attacks last year impact retailers in the UK.
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attacks → see → UK
“We know it can happen, and we’ve seen it across Europe.
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we → know → Europe
“We alert people.
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We → alert → people
We intervene where we can.
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we → intervene → ?
But, at the end of the day, it’s your business.
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it → ’ → day
It’s your charity.
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It → ’ → ?
It’s your life.
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It → ’ → ?
You need to make the choice and choose wisely.”
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You → need → choice
The NCSC annual report said its incident management team received 1,831 reports this year of cyber attacks, of which 337 required support and 80 were nationally significant.
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80 → say → support
The team also warned 8,500 organisations their systems had been compromised by attackers.
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systems → warn → attackers
The Aporia
