UK affected by cyber attack which disrupted European fridges and freezers
UK businesses alerted overnight
NCSC chief executive Dr Richard Horne said the organisation worked through the night to notify potentially affected UK businesses. Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, he said it remained too early to identify who was behind the hacks.
Tony Goodger, head of communications at AIMS, said affected businesses had not lost meat. He urged food-industry companies throughout the supply chain to remember that they could be targets.
Fridge failures across Europe
About 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected. Smaller numbers of shops were hit in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland. The same method was suspected in an incident last month affecting hundreds of French supermarkets.
Warnings about vulnerable systems
Horne said many companies had extended systems beyond their end of life without upgrading them or keeping them in secure compartments disconnected from the internet. He said artificial intelligence in adversaries’ hands could make vulnerabilities easier and faster to find and exploit.
The BBC approached major UK supermarkets for comment and asked what steps they were taking to guard against similar attempts. Mathieu Tilman, who runs a Delhaize supermarket in Belgium, described the incident as “truly distressing,” the BBC reported.
Key points
- UK food supply-chain businesses were affected by the European supermarket cyber-attack.
- No affected businesses reported losing meat, according to AIMS communications head Tony Goodger.
- Around 40 Delhaize stores in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected.
- The attacker’s identity remained unknown, and outdated systems were cited as a security concern.