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The cyberattack on supermarkets highlights the shortage of analysts
The attack that caused the temperature in the fridges of hundreds of European supermarkets to reach around 50 degrees drew attention to internet-accessible refrigeration systems. IE University demonstrated how an analyst works and will open an in-person bootcamp in Madrid in February 2027.
In mid-October, someone forced defrost cycles in refrigeration systems at European supermarkets. The chambers reached about 50 degrees and tonnes of food ended up in the bin.
In France, the Finance Minister, Roland Lescure, estimated that around 700 shops were affected. These included branches of Intermarché and Carrefour, as well as Monoprix and Coopérative U. Nearly a month later, the perpetrator was still unknown.
The entry point was control modules from Danfoss and Copeland, many of them old and lacking security updates. Researchers found 2,752 Danfoss systems accessible from the internet, 1,590 of them in France.
The risk of relying on systems a company does not control was also at the centre of an online session at IE University held on Tuesday, 3 November. In Expediente ChainDrop: veneno en el código, professors Luis Ángel Galindo y Gómez, head of the Ciberinteligencia y OSINT module, investigated the ChainDrop worm, which in August poisoned more than 400 software packages used by millions of applications.
Using free tools, they tracked the domains to which the stolen data was sent and the footprint of the malicious file. They also followed the money that funded the operation on the Ethereum blockchain. The investigation uncovered data missing from the original technical report, though it did not determine who was behind the attack.
There is no known connection between ChainDrop and the supermarket incident. In both cases, the threat came through trusted elements that organisations did not control. Gómez explained that the analyst’s job is to clarify what is known and with what degree of certainty, as well as to guide organisational decisions. Galindo pointed out that companies already receive alerts, but need professionals able to interpret them and explain them to decision-makers.
Demand for cybersecurity professionals in Spain reached around 99,600 workers in 2025, according to INCIBE; analysts are among the most sought-after profiles.
The Cyber Intelligence Analyst Bootcamp de IE University will begin on 18 February 2027 in Madrid. It will last 17 weeks and include 200 hours of in-person classes, half of them in the lab. The programme combines technical training with open-source investigation, critical thinking, and communication with management. It is aimed at recent graduates from any discipline and professionals looking to change careers; also at tech profiles seeking to specialise. The other two sessions on ChainDrop are scheduled for January.