Cyberattack heats fridges in hundreds of French stores

Hackers took remote control of refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets overnight from Sunday, Oct. 11, into Monday, Oct. 12. The attack heated fridges and freezers, forced stores to throw away fresh and frozen food and caused small fires at some sites. E. Leclerc, Intermarché and Coopérative U confirmed to AFP that they had been hit. Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation into what they called "the large-scale cyberattack affecting the refrigerators of several major food retail chains across France".afp+1

The attack shows a new kind of risk to the food supply: equipment that once ran offline can now be controlled from outside, and turned against the stores that use it. No group has claimed responsibility.dw

Forced defrost at 50C

According to BFM TV, the attackers "managed to remotely trigger the forced defrosting of the refrigeration systems in numerous stores". Intermarché said its units heated to 50C (122F) for six hours, Reuters reported, and the chain threw away all affected food. AFP reported that at least 300 Intermarché and Netto shops, more than 100 Coopérative U stores and several E. Leclerc outlets were targeted. A Mousquetaires spokesman told the BBC that 180 Intermarché and Netto stores were affected and another 100 were urgently disconnected from the internet.bbc+1

Carrefour said 80 of its 6,000 stores were hit, and Monoprix said about 5% of its more than 400 stores were affected. BFM TV reported that two supermarkets in Haguenau, in Alsace, lost a combined €270,000 in goods. Coopérative U chief executive Dominique Schelcher wrote on X that targeting equipment "essential to the preservation of fresh products and to the food supply of the French people is extremely serious and is unprecedented. It is unacceptable".afp+2

Danfoss points to outdated equipment

The attack targeted control systems made by Danish manufacturer Danfoss. The company said most of the affected units were "legacy" products, including AK-SM800 and AK-SC355 systems, "which have reached end of life and no longer receive software or security updates." It added that the affected AK-SM800A units were running outdated firmware. In August, researchers at Claroty's Team82 disclosed flaws in AK-SM 800A controllers, and Danfoss released patched firmware. Predicta Lab chief executive Baptiste Robert found 2,752 Danfoss systems exposed online on Monday, 1,590 of them in France.pcmag+3

The office of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said France's cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, had found a vulnerability in the vendor's software and was working with European counterparts because "other countries may be affected".afp+1

Wider concern in Europe

Ahold Delhaize Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize N.V. also reported a "security issue" affecting stores in the Netherlands and Belgium and took its refrigeration systems offline. The company said it saw no link to the attacks in France. The incident comes a month after President Emmanuel Macron ordered measures to protect critical infrastructure from Russian "hybrid attacks".dw+1

EU food commissioner Christophe Hansen condemned the attack on X: "Food security requires more attention at all levels. Because the weaponisation of food has become a reality".bbc