'Unprecedented' Cyberattack cripples supermarket fridges across Europe as hackers activate automatic defrosting — delivery and store prices also impacted by incident

An ongoing cyberattack has reportedly struck major supermarket chains across Europe, disrupting refrigeration control systems. The attack — which has reportedly seen units set to continuously defrost at 50 degrees Celsius — is also apparently affecting deliveries and in-store pricing powered by electronic shelf labels, La Dépêche reports.

According to the report, "several" major retailers have been targeted by a cyberattack, which has hit Danfoss-made refrigeration controls used by French supermarkets Intermarché, Leclerc, and Coopérative U. Indeed, the latter's president, Dominique Schelcher, has confirmed as of Monday morning that "A cyberattack has been affecting the refrigeration production facilities of several stores in our network since last night." Schelcher said teams had been mobilized to fix the issue and promised an investigation into the incident, which he described as "extremely serious."

The report states the units have had their automatic defrosting systems activate, but that hackers have also configured the function — which normally runs for just two hours a day …