Supervalu cyber attack tells us that nobody is immune

Monday’s cyberattack on Supervalu stores should serve as a serious warning: no one is immune.

The retailer was faced with empty shelves after a cyberattack hit 13 of its supermarkets. The incident affected temperatures in fridges and freezer units, forcing managers to remove stock from the shelves as a precautionary measure.

The sight of empty fridge units brought home the danger that we now all face. With what seems like relatively little effort, hackers can hit us where we are most vulnerable: our food supplies.

It is not yet clear how the attack was launched, but Supervalu owner Musgrave said the incident was limited to a specific model of refrigeration. Monitoring systems kicked in, alerting staff to the issue and allowing the retailer to take immediate action.

Shortly after 9am, some stock was making its way back on to the shelves, but it could take a while before things return to normal.

The Irish retailer wasn’t the only one affected. Reports of similar incidents at supermarkets throughout Europe emerged on Monday, with overheating fridges in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Estonia ruining millions of euro worth of food.

[ Supervalu removes frozen and chilled food from shelves at 13 stores after cyberattack on fridgesOpens in new window ]

And this attack comes only a couple of weeks after 700 supermarkets in France were hit by a similar cyberattack that overheated fridges, causing food to spoil and, in some cases, fires to break out.

No one has claimed responsibility for the latest incident, nor has a motive been established. But as with many other attacks of this type, the disruption it caused may well be the goal.

Technology is intended to make our lives easier, making the systems we depend on more reliable and run more smoothly. But occasionally, it works against us, particularly when we forget that the security of every single connected device, from our security cameras to our smart home appliances, is as important as our laptops and smartphones.

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When things go wrong, they can have a serious impact on our daily lives, whether it is causing delays in services or disrupting food supplies.

The technical details of what happened with Supervalu have yet to be disclosed. But we know that the heart of the issue was fridges that are connected to the internet. On the positive side, that makes them easier to monitor for temperature fluctuations and problems.

As we have seen though, it can leave them vulnerable too. One security issue was enough to cause millions of euro worth of damage across several countries.

Regardless of the motivation, we should take this incident as a warning. The next attack may not be so easily dealt with, nor its impact as short-lived.