Attackers remotely changed the settings on refrigeration controls at supermarkets in Belgium, Sweden, Estonia and other European countries overnight into Monday, November 2, warming fridges and freezers.

No chain reported more than several dozen affected stores, and some had to throw away chilled and frozen food or take it off the shelf. Danfoss, a Danish maker of refrigeration controls, said its products were involved, as they were three weeks earlier when attackers hit hundreds of French supermarkets.

No one had claimed the attacks by Monday night, and it was not known whether they were linked to the attack in France.

Refrigeration controls are computers that run a store's fridges and freezers. They can be connected to the internet, allowing refrigeration contractors to monitor them and fix faults remotely.

In Belgium, attackers switched cooling units into defrost mode, Stephan Moelans, chief executive of the refrigeration contractor Sabcobel, told Belgian media. Defrost mode is meant to clear ice, but in these attacks it made the units heat up instead of keeping food cold. Sabcobel manages refrigeration systems for the Delhaize supermarket chain.

In other cases, the temperature setting was raised. An ICA store in Sjöbo, in southern Sweden, said its fridges and freezers had been set to 50°C and that staff were throwing out the affected goods.

At a Selver supermarket in Estonia , a freezer was set to 50°C, said Jann Mutso, chief executive of the refrigeration supplier Kitman Coldtech. Its temperature rose by only about 2-3°C, and the problem was resolved within about 10 minutes, with no products damaged.

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