Cyberattack Causes Fridge Disruptions Across French Supermarkets -

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A cyberattack targeted hundreds of French shops, causing their freezers and refrigerators to overheat and ruin frozen and fresh food valued at millions of euros.

According to one impacted grocery chain, hackers took control of the software that controls the refrigeration units’ temperatures, causing some of them to warm up to 50C (120F) overnight.

According to Coopérative U’s CEO, the “very serious and unprecedented” attack had affected multiple supermarkets.

More than 100 of the chain’s supermarkets were attacked, and 180 Intermarché and its Netto brand stores were impacted. According to a spokesman, an additional 100 outlets were immediately cut off from the internet to avoid the same fate.

The hack, which targeted software from the Danish industrial firm Danfoss, also affected other large grocery merchants like Carrefour, Monoprix, and E.Leclerc.

Retailers can remotely manage their cold units thanks to the software.

Supermarket freezers typically go through a brief overnight defrosting phase during which the temperature rises a little. However, Danfoss did not verify any claims regarding how warm the freezers and refrigerators could get during this process. Instead, the hackers instructed the devices to heat up and remain hot.

Danfoss, Danish Engineering Firm

The impacted cold units were older models whose security software was unable to be updated to prevent a problem they had discovered.

In a statement, the company stated that it had “long recommended” companies to maintain supported systems current.

“Our customers’ activities depend on dependable refrigeration, and we are still dedicated to supporting them and assisting them in maintaining the safe and dependable systems they are accustomed to.”

Although the exact scope of the attack is unknown, data provided by certain chains indicates that 400 of France’s roughly 15,000 stores were impacted.

Carrefour

Eighty of its 6,000 outlets have hacked refrigerators.

Monoprix

Food was removed from sale if its condition could not be verified, affecting 5% of its more than 400 outlets.

Mousquetaires Group, Intermarché and Netto, Statement, BBC

On Monday afternoon, a few fresh and frozen food display units were still unavailable.

It stated that employees were attempting to replenish the shelves “as soon as possible” and that the stores had “taken all required procedures to remove the products from these units”.

According to the Reuters news agency, Intermarché claimed that its refrigerators had heated up to 50 degrees Celsius for six hours during the night and into Monday. In order to prevent health hazards, the company threw away all of the contaminated food.

A surge of hot air from the freezers struck managers arriving at branches of multiple grocery brands on Monday morning as a result of the attack. There were even little fires in some areas.

An image of a freezer in an ice cream aisle at a temperature of 26.5C was released by the French channel BFMTV.

The station claimed that two retailers in the Alsace region reported losses of €270,000 (£228,000) between them, suggesting that the national total may reach the millions.

The event was described as a “large-scale cyber-attack impacting the freezers of numerous big food retail chains across France” by the Paris prosecutor’s office, and French prosecutors have initiated a specific cybercrime inquiry.

In a post on X, European Food Commissioner Christophe Hansen denounced the intrusion and stated that “food security requires more attention at all levels,” because food is now actually being used as a weapon.

Dominique Schelcher, Coopérative Chief Executive, X

“Fully mobilized, in co-ordination with refrigeration professionals, to restore the situation as rapidly as possible” was how staff were described.

He declared that it was “unacceptable” to target equipment crucial to the French food supply and demanded an investigation into the hack.

About The Author

Suraj Koli is a content specialist in technical writing about cybersecurity & information security. He has written many amazing articles related to cybersecurity concepts, with the latest trends in cyber awareness and ethical hacking. Find out more about him.”

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