[Anchor]

Last month, a hacking incident targeting supermarket refrigeration systems in France sent temperatures soaring to nearly 50 degrees Celsius. Now, similar incidents have hit Belgium and various other parts of Europe, raising suspicions that a specific country may be behind the cyberattacks.

Reporting from Paris, this is Kwon Yeongin.

[Reporter]

Display shelves once filled with refrigerated goods are completely empty.

At another supermarket, employees are throwing refrigerated items into garbage bags.

Between the night of November 1 and the early hours of November 2, local time, major supermarket and hypermarket chains across Europe, including Belgium, came under cyberattack.

Temperature settings in in-store refrigeration and freezing systems were manipulated or forced into defrost mode, causing internal temperatures to skyrocket up to 50 degrees Celsius.

[Mathieu Tillman / Supermarket Manager : (It's a freezer, but) unfortunately, the temperature here has risen above 20 degrees Celsius above zero. It's supposed to be minus 20 degrees Celsius.]

In Belgium, dozens of stores belonging to a single supermarket chain suffered damage, and 15 Carrefour stores reportedly experienced the same issue.

Similar damage was also reported in eight other European countries, including Italy, Sweden, and Finland.

The culprit behind the mid-last month cyberattack that damaged over 700 supermarkets in France has not yet been caught, and no group has claimed responsibility.

The European Union has condemned the incident as a deliberate attempt to disrupt the food supply chain, and affected nations like Italy decided to hold an emergency countermeasures meeting today.

[Paulo Cardoso / Security Expert : It's an issue that arises because it's important yet often overlooked, which damages corporate image and incurs hidden costs. It is also a preliminary warning to other sectors with weak security.]

Some experts are drawing attention to the increase in cyberattacks within Europe following the outbreak of the war between Ukraine and Russia. They point out that given the lack of financial demands and the apparent goal of causing disruption, the attacks are highly likely to be state-sponsored.

(Video by Kim Sinae | Video Editing by Lim Yeojin)