NRT briefing
Hackers heat French supermarket fridges, sparking fires and spoiling food
Based on reporting by New York Post.
The Brief
The Paris prosecutor's office reported on Monday that a "large-scale" cyberattack affected connected refrigerators and freezers in several major French food retailers, causing food spoilage and fires. Hackers raised temperatures to as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, with Intermarché reporting about 150 stores affected for six hours.
Carrefour said 80 of its supermarkets were hit, and Monoprix stated 5% of its stores were impacted. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu ordered France's National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) to investigate, with authorities coordinating with European counterparts as other countries may be affected.
Felix Aime of Sekoia said Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany, and Belgium were also hit. Intermarché CEO Thierry Cotillard told BFM TV the attack was "unprecedented" and could cause losses in the "tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day."
All affected food was discarded. The source close to Lecornu said ANSSI identified a vulnerability in software from Danish firm Danfoss, which acknowledged incidents involving outdated firmware and said it had advised customers to update systems. Cybersecurity firm Claroty had published research on Danfoss controller vulnerabilities in August.
The FCD called for "full transparency" from Danfoss. Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize also reported a "security issue" and took systems offline, though it saw no link to the France incidents. Similar disruptions affected US military commissaries in late August.