Follow-Up: Italy Publishes Preliminary Assessment of Supermarket Fridge Cyberattack: Domestic Impact Highly Limited
The Italian government said on November 3 that the domestic impact of a cyberattack on supermarket refrigeration systems across Europe had been highly limited in Italy and that thawing food products posed no public health risk. The statement was Italy's preliminary official assessment of the second wave of supermarket freezer attacks that hit Europe on November 2; GSM's earlier follow-up had noted that reports from Italy had not yet been officially confirmed at that point.
Alfredo Mantovano, a senior undersecretary in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government, chaired a meeting with the intelligence services and the National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN). In its statement after the meeting, the government said initial assessments showed that only a small number of commercial outlets had been affected in Italy, mostly those still relying on outdated security systems, with interfaces exposed directly to the internet and weaknesses in authentication mechanisms. The vast majority of Italy's food distribution chain was equipped with up-to-date protection systems capable of repelling malicious intrusions, the government said, and the cybersecurity agency issued technical advice to help retailers protect their systems.
Italian media reports put the number of affected outlets nationwide at around 20. The supermarket chain Conad confirmed that five of its stores had been hit, two in the northern Veneto region and three in Sicily in the south, and said it had reported the incidents to police. Giuseppe Spadaro, director of the Radenza Group, which manages Coop supermarkets in Sicily, said four of the group's 300 stores were attacked at about 4 a.m., when the remote-control system for the frozen food sections was targeted; damage was estimated at several thousand euros, spoiled goods had to be thrown away and shelves were left empty pending restocking. Italian police have opened an investigation into the attacks in Sicily and in the northern Emilia-Romagna region.
The November 2 attacks affected supermarkets in at least 11 European countries, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Sweden, and EU officials warned of a deliberate attempt to disrupt Europe's food supply chain. The incident came three weeks after a similar attack disrupted some 700 French supermarkets in October. No group has claimed responsibility for either wave of attacks.
Source: Government of Italy
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：意大利一家 Conad 超市的制冷设备（资料图）。照片 CC BY-SA 4.0，作者 Air fans，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Refrigeration units at a Conad supermarket in Italy (file photo). CC BY-SA 4.0, by Air fans, via Wikimedia Commons.
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