Italy’s government held emergency security talks on Tuesday 3 November 2026 after a coordinated wave of cyberattacks targeted supermarket freezer and refrigeration systems across at least 11 European countries, raising alarms in Brussels of a deliberate attempt to disrupt the European food supply chain and undermine consumer confidence. Convened by Cabinet Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, the meeting brought together intelligence chiefs and the National Cybersecurity Agency, which also issued immediate technical guidance to retailers on how to secure industrial control systems. The attacks, which occurred overnight from Monday to Tuesday, manipulated digital temperature controls and forced supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Sweden to discard large quantities of perishable food after temperatures rose, with images of empty refrigerators in a Delhaize store in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium, symbolising the scale of disruption. The incident follows a similar cyberattack three weeks earlier that hit French grocery stores and led hundreds of outlets to throw away spoiled stock, and comes as no group has yet claimed responsibility.
In Italy, the impact was described as highly limited, with initial investigations showing only a small number of commercial units affected, around 20 outlets nationwide including four Coop-branded supermarkets in Sicily managed by the Radenza Group and one business in Tuscany. Giuseppe Spadaro, director of the group managing the Sicilian Coop stores, said the attack at 4:00 am targeted the remote-control system for frozen food sections and has since been resolved. The government statement noted that the affected systems had outdated security configurations with interfaces exposed directly to the internet and weaknesses in authentication mechanisms, and that the refrigeration equipment hit overnight was connected to old 4G networks, a vulnerability also highlighted by retailers in Sweden where Coop spokesperson Carlos Cancinos said affected shops had resumed normal functioning and were accelerating a major modernisation programme to move connected refrigerators to 5G infrastructure. At EU level, spokesman Thomas Regnier confirmed that EU agencies were holding parallel meetings with national authorities on how to best respond collectively, while Food and Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen said the bloc was taking the incidents very seriously, describing them as a deliberate attempt to disrupt the food supply chain. With investigations being carried out by national authorities in close coordination with Brussels, Italy’s emergency talks underscore growing concern that critical cold-chain infrastructure, long considered low-risk, has become a new front in hybrid attacks against Europe.
