European Freezer Hacks Mirror August Incidents at 6 U.S. Base Stores

Official statements from European retail chains and public broadcasters on Monday linked this weekend's commercial freezer cyberattacks to similar August intrusions at 6 U.S. military base commissaries, even as an alliance of Belarusian and pro-Ukrainian hackers claimed a destructive network operation against Russia's federal statistics agency Rosstat.

European Broadcasters Detail Freezer Sabotage Following 6 U.S. Military Base Incidents

According to ABC7 News reporter Victoria Beaule, grocery executives in Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Estonia confirmed Monday that hackers remotely altered refrigeration and freezer settings to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), spoiling inventory 2 days toseveral weeks after an October wave hit French supermarkets in Montreuil and across France:

• Chain-by-Chain Disclosures: In Sweden, Coop reported that 7 of its more than 800 stores were hit just ahead of a planned software upgrade, while ICA confirmed overnight incidents at stores outside its central network, including a store in Sjöbo where freezers were set to 50 degrees Celsius. In Belgium, Carrefour stated 15 of its 700 stores were affected and Delhaize confirmed an IT incident. Irish wholesaler Musgrave (owner of SuperValu) told broadcaster RTÉ that 13 stores were affected, and refrigeration maker Danfoss told Dutch broadcaster NOS that 17 frozen-storage and butcher facilities in the Netherlands were hit.
• Pentagon Investigation Into 6 Base Commissaries: Citing Reuters, ABC News noted that at least 6 on-base grocery commissaries at U.S. military installations experienced similar refrigeration cyberattacks in August 2026, prompting an ongoing Pentagon investigation.

Belarusian Cyber Partisans and Silent Crow Claim 25,000-Device Attack on Russia's Rosstat

In Eastern Europe, The Record by Recorded Future reported Monday that the Belarusian Cyber Partisans—formed during the 2020 protests against Alexander Lukashenko—and pro-Ukrainian hacking group Silent Crow claimed a joint weekend attack on Russia's federal statistics agency Rosstat in Moscow:

• 6-Month Intrusion & Rosstat Response: The groups said they breached Rosstat 6 months ago, spent 4 months moving laterally, and prepared the destructive phase over the past 1 month (intensifying over the last 2 weeks) before wiping physical and virtual servers overnight Saturday across roughly 25,000 computers and replacing portal pages for 1 hour, as reported by Russian daily Kommersant. In a statement to state news agency TASS, Rosstat confirmed it was targeted by a cyberattack but disputed that protected databases were leaked.
• 2025 Aeroflot & 2023 Healthcare Operations: Both groups—designated as extremist organizations by Russia's Supreme Court in July 2026—previously partnered on the July 2025 cyberattack against Aeroflot that canceled more than 100 flights for roughly 20,000 passengers, and the Cyber Partisans disclosed in October that they had infiltrated Moscow's healthcare network in 2023.