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). 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.