During autumn of 2026 a troubling number of cyber attacks have targeted supermarket cold chains across Europe. The thought of these incidents also having geopolitical connections creeps in fast. Nevertheless, it seems clear that they are neither simple accidents nor coincidential but seem very deliberate.
Our digitally dependent society relies on interconnected value chains to keep everyday life running – a dependence that shows it tangible nature when disrupted. In an era of hybrid threats, the principles of comprehensive security are changing. Digital resilience now sits at the heart of that challenge.
Food supply is a critical part of security of supply. Alfred Henry Lewis captured that dependence succinctly: “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.”
Lewis’s observation about the link between food and social stability is a reminder that thawing freezers in European supermarkets may represent much more than hackers causing mischief. Viewed through the lens of comprehensive digital security, the stakes are far higher.
Disruption cascades through value chains
Finland’s National Emergency Supply Agency draws the following conclusion in its recent, comprehensive report on lessons from Ukraine:
“… society’s ability to function during a severe and prolonged crisis rests on its capacity to maintain essential everyday services and face the crisis as a cohesive nation. Successful preparedness depends not only on protecting individual systems, but on the combined provision of energy, digital connectivity, logistics, physical protection, finance, information security and materials.”
This is a question of value chains. Every link must function, including during disruption and emergency conditions. These attacks have struck the downstream end of the food sector’s value chain, affecting highly processed products that have already travelled a long way through production and logistics. In economic terms, the attacks have maximised the damage.
High-profile cyber attacks on consumer-facing services often generate unnecessary costs, disruption and recovery work. But the chain of consequences does not end there.
Targeting the critical infrastructure of a digital society also affects public trust and perceptions. Few things strike closer to everyday security than the suggestion that food may no longer be readily available. Even the prospect of uncertainty over food supplies tests the resilience of both society and individuals.
Comprehensive digital security demands a robust situational awareness
The era of hybrid threats is changing the principles of comprehensive security. The priority is to keep our digitally dependent society functioning: its structures, essential services and critical data flows must hold under all conditions.
In practice, this requires a real-time operational picture and assured interoperability across mission-critical systems, data, certificates and identities. This must account for cyber security, increasingly varied forms of interference and technological dependencies.
Some situational awareness solutions that served us well in the past are no longer sufficient to protect a modern digital society or meet the demands of comprehensive security.
When disruption cascades across interconnected systems, the authorities may not be able to assist everyone immediately. Finnish businesses and critical operators must therefore maintain adequate self-protection: the ability to safeguard their own operations through their own measures.
Practical approaches include digital self-sufficiency and sovereignty, technical isolation of ICT environments, and preparedness and business continuity planning. Organisations must model unexpected scenarios – even those that seem far-fetched – and develop and rehearse alternative ways of operating under pressure.
Keeping it cool
Finland’s instinct is to act rather than stand still under pressure. For the defence industry and other critical sectors, the priority now is to learn quickly from confirmed cyber incidents and apply those lessons across sector boundaries: how does interference spread through digital value chains, and where must we be ready to respond?
What does this require?
The priorities all centre on digital value chains:
- Map value chains more effectively across sector boundaries.
- Assess whether your organisation’s situational awareness and understanding are sufficient, and identify where they need updating.
- Identify critical vulnerabilities in advance, focusing on points where disruption could cause the greatest harm across the value chain.
- Understand the interfaces between the physical and digital worlds: how far can digital disruption reach, and how will you sustain operations when digital capabilities are suddenly unavailable?
Which cyber threats should organisations prepare for next?
Embedding security in architectures, platforms and design processes enables organisations to build trusted systems with strong data protection, fault tolerance and secure operational practices.
We help organisations strengthen cyber security compliance across their systems and design security solutions. We also recognise the human dimension of security, helping to develop working practices and a stronger security culture.
