Hackers turn up heat on over 480 French supermarkets: Fridges hit 50°C in a first-of-its-kind cyberattack

PTC Web Desk: Imagine walking into a supermarket where the freezers are warm and the food inside is spoiling. That is what happened across France on Monday, when a major cyberattack hit the cooling systems of hundreds of supermarkets.

More than 480 stores saw the temperature inside their fridges and freezers climb as high as 50 degrees Celsius, French media reported.

What did the hackers do?

According to reports, the attackers put the refrigeration systems of several stores into defrosting mode. Defrosting is the process of melting the ice that builds up inside a freezer. With the system stuck in that mode, fresh and frozen food went bad. Some stores also caught fire.

Leading French retailers described it as the first attack of this kind, and a very serious one.

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Prime Minister orders an inquiry

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has asked the national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, to investigate. France is also working with other European countries to find out whether more companies have been hit.

The Paris prosecutor’s office called it a large-scale attack. It said Internet-connected fridges at many big food retailers across the country were targeted.

How can a fridge be hacked?

In most supermarkets, the fridges and freezers are run through control panels that manage the cooling of the whole store. Because these panels are online, maintenance companies can change settings from far away.

That convenience can also be a weakness. If a hacker finds a gap in the system’s security, they can get in and change the settings. They can reduce the cooling or start defrosting, which is exactly what seems to have happened here.

Flaw found in Danish company’s software

An official from the Prime Minister’s office said the French cyber agency has found a weakness in software made by the Danish company Danfoss. The refrigeration systems in these supermarkets run on its technology.

Danfoss said it knows about some incidents involving fridge and freezer systems in France. It added that the affected systems were running an old version of its software. The company said it has long advised customers to keep their software updated and replace outdated equipment.

There is another detail. On August 9, the cybersecurity firm Claroty published a report on certain weaknesses in Danfoss systems. It said attackers could use them to get into a system without proper identity checks.

The French retail body FCD has now asked Danfoss to share full details of the issue publicly.

Retailers say losses run into crores of euros

The total loss across the retail sector is not yet known. Experts said the attack could cost several crore euros in just one day across the country.

Dominique Schelcher, CEO of Coopérative U, said his company’s refrigeration systems had been facing trouble since Sunday night. He said attacking the systems that keep food fresh and get it to people is extremely serious. He called it unacceptable and said nothing like this had happened before.