Estonian cyber authority: Motives behind Selver fridge hack not yet known

Mai Kraft, head of the Cyber Security Center at Estonia's Information System Authority (RIA), the state body responsible for cyber security, told the broadcast "Aktuaalne kaamera" that the motives behind Monday's cyber attack on refrigeration equipment at Estonian supermarket chain Selver are not yet known. She said the attack is part of a larger wave of attacks seen across Europe.

What happened

The attack hit one Selver store in Estonia. Hackers gained access to a computer controlling refrigeration and changed a freezer setting to 50 degrees above zero. The incident was responded to promptly.

Similar attacks were reported on Monday in Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg. Last month, supermarket refrigeration systems were also interfered with in France and the Netherlands. In Sweden, spoiled produce had to be thrown away.

What RIA says

Kraft said Selver notified RIA of the attack in the morning, but there is currently no information suggesting it was caused by AI. In her words, the main factor in such attacks is that devices with security vulnerabilities are visible on the internet and attackers exploit them maliciously. RIA received one notification from Selver and has not heard of other incidents today.

Fewer than ten refrigeration control systems of this kind were identified today. Across Estonia's cyberspace as a whole, RIA counts more than 30,000 vulnerable devices, belonging to both private individuals and companies. Which sectors are affected is still being analyzed.

Kraft also noted that the most frequent recent attacks on Estonian information systems have been denial-of-service attacks, while scams and phishing campaigns remain widespread and quite a few website compromises were observed over the summer.