Food supplier to Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi ‘held to ransom’ by cyber attackers

A distributor to some of the UK’s biggest supermarkets said it is being held to ransom by cyberattackers.

Peter Green Chilled, which supplies Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi among others, was affected by a ransomware attack last week.

The cyberattack happened last Wednesday, and the logistics firm said in an email that it would not be able to process any orders last Thursday.

Managing director Tom Binks told the BBC: “The transport activities of the business have continued unaffected throughout this incident.”

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Although it is not one of the top 30 food distributors in the UK, the Somerset-based cold storage and transport company is essential to the supply chain for chilled foods.

Thousands of boxes of meat products are currently sitting idle, according to Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, founder of The Black Farmer and a client of Peter Green Chilled.

He said “ten pallets’ worth of meat products” were sitting there, “and the clock is ticking”.

“There’s no information,” he added. “Everything along the chain has to be stopped, and then there are thousands of pounds worth of products that are just wasting away. ”

Ransomware incidents involve hackers gaining access to a computer system and using malware to steal or block access to files - often encrypting them - before demanding a payment, usually in cryptocurrency, to return the impacted data.

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Tim Grieveson, chief security officer at ThingsRecon, said: "Cyber attacks on the supply chain are not just about digital data breaches.

"They are disrupting the physical flow of goods as we have seen in the case of M&S, Co-op and now for Peter Green Chilled.

"When hackers target logistics systems or warehouse operations, even a short delay can be catastrophic, especially for perishable goods such as fresh produce or pharmaceuticals."

The ransomware attack on Peter Green Chilled is the latest in a string of cyberattacks on supermarkets.

M&S faced availability issues earlier this month after taking some of its systems offline in response to the incident.

Personal data that could have been accessed includes names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth, according to the supermarket.

A hack on Co-op earlier this month also caused significant disruption across its retail chain and led to bare shelves in many of its shops.

The National Crime Agency has said it is investigating the attacks individually but is “mindful they may be linked”.

The Independent has contacted Peter Green Chilled for comment.

The firm confirmed to the BBC that the attack had happened, but said it was not in a position to discuss further.