Remote hack heats French supermarket refrigeration units to 50C, ruining food stock at hundreds of stores
A cyberattack hit refrigeration systems at major supermarket chains across France between late Oct. 11 and early Oct. 12, forcing some units to heat up instead of cool and leaving fresh and frozen food unusable at hundreds of locations. According to BFM TV, attackers took control of store-wide refrigeration controllers and altered the defrost function, which normally runs for about two hours a day, into a continuous cycle set to 50C. The Paris prosecutor's office described the incident as a large-scale cyberattack affecting connected refrigeration equipment used by major food retailers nationwide. Reported damage included spoiled food and fires. Retail groups including Intermarché, Netto, Coopérative U, Carrefour and Monoprix were affected, while trade outlet Cooling Post estimated that roughly 500 stores were hit in total. A Les Mousquetaires executive told BFM TV the event could cause losses of tens of millions of euros in a single day across France. Danish manufacturer Danfoss said the incident involved a limited number of refrigeration management systems, many of them older products that no longer receive security updates, while some current-generation units had not updated firmware. French authorities have opened an investigation, and the national cybersecurity agency ANSSI is also checking with European counterparts over possible impact outside France.
