Status: 05.07.2021 2:43 p.m.
Even three days after the cyber attack, most of the around 800 branches of the Swedish supermarket giant Coop are still closed. A trick should now make shopping possible again.
By Carsten Schmiester, ARD-Studio Stockholm,
currently Hamburg
The typical scene, the typical question and the typical answer: “Can I go in?” “No, unfortunately not, we’re closed.” “Such a crap!”
The frustration is great and the worry is almost even greater. It’s never been that bad! Because IT experts did not manage to put the hacked POS systems of the Swedish supermarket giant Coop back into operation over the weekend.
The company’s website only mentions a few shops, including in Oskarshamn and Gotland Island, that are still open.
Retail chain plans to pay via app
As of today, shopping in additional Coop stores should be possible again with a technical trick: customers are requested online to go to specially prepared stores and shop there as usual, but not at the checkout, but via a Coop’s own App to pay with your smartphone.
Company spokeswoman Theresa Knapp can only shrug her shoulders and says about the incident:
It’s an extraordinary situation that shouldn’t have happened. We have to analyze the matter carefully now and see how we deal with something like this in the future.
Other companies in Sweden affected
According to the reports, other companies are also affected by the cyberattack, which is the largest known publicly known cyber attack in Sweden for the first time in everyday life, including a large pharmacy group, the railway company SJ and the petrol station chain ST1.
Sweden’s Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist spoke on the morning television of the public broadcaster SVT. He spoke of a serious attack on the basic functions of Swedish society. It is further proof that criminals, but also terrorists and – without naming specific countries – “state actors” are looking for weak points in digital systems, according to Hultqvist. And further:
It also shows what can happen in a tense security situation when an adversary is really out to sabotage a country. You can shut down large parts of society with these methods. We see how precarious the situation is now.
Sweden opposes this with its own state security system, which is still being worked on, said the minister. Which should be of little consolation for Coop customers today.
Apparently no quick fix in sight
According to the company, around 100 IT specialists have been trying to render the encryption software smuggled in by the hackers harmless since Friday evening. But that is a complicated process with different conditions for each of the many markets.
So there will be no quick solution – if at all – that will solve the problem for everyone. The many Swedes have been standing in front of closed supermarket doors for the third day and are no longer wondering whether or when, with many IT security experts in the country, but where the hackers will strike next.