Israel’s National Cyber Directorate has urged supermarkets, food companies and logistics centers to inspect their refrigeration systems after cyberattacks across Europe caused refrigerators and freezers to heat up, forcing retailers to throw away large quantities of food.

The warning is precautionary. According to i24NEWS, the directorate said there were no indications of an attempted attack in Israel at the time of its alert. Its concern centers on refrigeration controls that technicians and maintenance providers can access remotely.

Disruptions were reported in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg and Ireland. Affected businesses included ICA, Coop, Ahold Delhaize, Carrefour and Colruyt-linked stores, while IKEA reported an affected location in Belgium.

“Everything is destroyed,” Engla Ingwall, sales manager at an ICA franchise in Stockholm, told Reuters. She said all the store’s freezers reached 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit, after an overnight attack that went unnoticed for hours.

In Ireland, 13 SuperValu stores withdrew chilled and frozen products from sale. Parent company Musgrave subsequently said the incident had been resolved, all stores were operating normally and affected shelves were being restocked. The company said its monitoring systems had detected the problem, prompting an immediate response.

The latest incidents follow an attack last month that affected hundreds of French supermarkets, with authorities reporting food losses and fires. France’s cybersecurity agency, CERT-FR, confirmed compromises of refrigeration controllers from several manufacturers, including Danfoss and Copeland/Dixell.

These systems allow maintenance providers to manage cooling equipment remotely. The French advisory highlights the danger of leaving their control interfaces directly accessible over the internet. It urges operators to check defrost settings, restrict remote access to protected networks and update equipment. Resetting an unsupported device, it warns, will not prevent another intrusion if the equipment remains exposed.

Israel’s directorate is urging businesses to remove that direct internet exposure, replace default passwords, update outdated systems and require multifactor authentication for remote access. It also recommends independent alerts that detect unusual temperature changes. Retailers were asked to report their inspection results and the protective measures they have taken.

The Israeli warning extends to the operational equipment businesses rely on to store and distribute food. The directorate cautioned that interference with those systems can damage equipment, interrupt operations and affect supplies of essential products. Organizations were urged to report suspicious activity to its 119 hotline.

Belgium’s federal prosecutors have opened an investigation. No perpetrator has been identified, and a connection between the latest attacks and the earlier French incident has not been established.