Unprecedented Cyberattack on French Supermarkets Causes Fire and Food Spoilage

A cyberattack on the cooling systems of hundreds of supermarkets in France pushed refrigerator temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius.

A cyber attack on the cooling systems of hundreds of supermarkets in France raised the temperature of the refrigerators to 50 degrees.

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A cyber attack on the control systems of refrigerators and freezers of hundreds of supermarkets in France raised the temperature of the cooling equipment to 50 degrees Celsius in some stores, causing fires and food loss. At the same time, several chain stores in the Netherlands and Belgium also faced cyber disruptions; However, the possible connection between these events is still unknown.

A massive hack has affected Internet-connected refrigerators in several French grocery stores, Paris prosecutors said Monday. In addition to food damage, this attack has also led to a fire.

According to Reuters, various French retail companies have reported damage to their stores. Carrefour says 80 of its stores have been targeted. Montprey, which has about 490 stores in France, said that 5% of its stores were affected by this incident.

The company Les Mousquetaires, the owner of the Intermarche chain of stores, announced that the temperature of the refrigerators of about 150 stores in the complex increased to 50 degrees Celsius during the night for six hours. A spokesperson for the company said that all the affected food items have been thrown away to avoid health risks.

In Paris, a citizen witnessed employees of an Intermarche store emptying large quantities of thawed frozen food into a large trash can.

Department store cooling systems are usually managed through panels that control a store's refrigerators and freezers. These systems may be accessible over the Internet so that service and maintenance companies can change their settings remotely.

According to a source close to the French Prime Minister, the French National Cyber Security Agency (ANSSI) has identified a vulnerability in the software of the Danish company Danfoss.

Danfoss said it is aware of incidents in France that have affected a limited number of cooling management systems. The company said the affected equipment was using old firmware and had previously advised customers to keep their systems up-to-date and replace old equipment with new generation solutions.

At the same time as the French attacks, the Dutch company Ahold Delhaize announced that it encountered a security problem in its network and, as a precaution, it has disabled some of its systems. The company owns Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, and several retail brands in the United States.

Analysts say similar attacks have been reported in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium. French authorities are coordinating with their European counterparts to investigate the scale of the incident and the possibility of endangering other companies.

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