Europe on alert after supermarket freezers hit by cyber-attacks in nine countries

A spate of cyber-attacks that hit supermarket chains across at least nine European countries on Monday has prompted European Union officials to warn of a deliberate attempt to disrupt the food supply chain.

Supermarkets have reported problems in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden, and the significant increase in freezer temperatures has forced retailers to discard food.

Temperatures in chains across Europe reportedly rose as high as 50C (122F).

No-one has yet admitted carrying out the cyber-attacks.

The European Union has raised concerns about the attacks, which come three weeks after a cyber-attack disrupted as many as 700 French grocery stores, causing food losses estimated at tens of millions of euros.

The security of refrigeration systems as well as other devices that can be monitored remotely has heightened concerns about government-backed hybrid attacks.

The EU's food and agriculture commissioner, Christophe Hansen, said the bloc was taking the incidents very seriously and warned of further disruption in the future.

Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier was careful not to attribute blame, but said: "These incidents of course show once again how cyber-attacks can disrupt essential services and affect citizens' daily lives."

Kaynak: BBC News World RSS (Açık Basın / Haber Servisi)