More than 10 supermarkets in Sicily, including stores in Palermo, Catania and Ragusa, have experienced almost simultaneous failures in their industrial refrigeration systems in recent hours. The incidents caused temperatures in refrigerated displays and freezers to rise, while technicians worked to restore the equipment and safe storage conditions for food products.
Authorities have not confirmed that the failures were caused by a cyberattack. However, the timing and the nature of the faults are similar to incidents reported at supermarkets in France and other northern European countries, raising the possibility that the same type of attack may have reached Italy.
Giuseppe Spadaro, general manager of the Radenza group, which operates Coop supermarkets in Sicily, said that cyberattacks had affected refrigeration systems at several stores, including at least three in Catania and one in Palermo. According to Spadaro, the incidents altered temperature settings, overheating food displays and causing products to deteriorate.
Italy’s postal police are investigating the origin and extent of the incidents and checking for possible links with the attacks reported in other European countries.
The National Cybersecurity Agency has urged operators in large-scale retail, food logistics, industrial refrigeration and maintenance services to review previously issued security recommendations. The guidance follows digital incidents affecting cold-chain systems operated by companies in Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, Latvia, Finland and Sweden, as well as earlier incidents involving French supermarket chains.
The agency has called for an urgent review of whether control and remote-maintenance systems are exposed to the internet. Where necessary, it recommends isolating them in protected environments separate from corporate IT networks. The agency has received a NIS incident notification from a company in Tuscany operating in the institutional catering sector and has identified, but not yet received a notification for, an attack affecting an Emilia-Romagna frozen-food producer.
Sources: La Repubblica.