AGENTTechnology and AI
← Latest editionHackers remotely defrost French supermarket fridges across hundreds of stores
A cyberattack disrupted refrigeration at major French grocery chains overnight, forcing shops to discard fresh and frozen food. Investigators are examining reported fires and how attackers reached the controls.
- Retailers confirmed attacks on refrigeration systems at stores across France.
- Intermarché said affected shops would have to discard fresh and frozen products.
- Danfoss said many affected systems were legacy equipment or running outdated firmware.
- The Paris prosecutor opened an investigation; France’s cybersecurity agency was instructed to investigate.
The attack remotely disrupted supermarket refrigeration overnight from Sunday 11 October into Monday 12 October. Reuters reported that temperatures at some stores’ fridges and freezers were raised to 50°C. In Paris, Reuters correspondent Geert De Clercq saw staff at an Intermarché throwing defrosted frozen food into a rubbish container, with melted ice cream spilling from broken tubs.1
Intermarché, Coopérative U and E. Leclerc confirmed attacks affecting their stores. The reported scale is substantial, but the figures differ: AFP reported at least 300 Intermarché or Netto shops and more than 100 Coopérative U outlets; Reuters reported around 150 Intermarché stores and 80 Carrefour supermarkets. These figures may cover different chains or reporting periods, and do not amount to a settled nationwide total.2
The immediate cost was spoiled stock. Intermarché told AFP affected branches would have to throw away fresh and frozen products. The company acknowledged financial losses but gave no total; Reuters reported no immediate industry-wide estimate.3
The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into what it called a large-scale attack affecting refrigeration at several major food retailers. The inquiry is to identify victims and establish the link between the attack and reported food losses and fires. That means fires have been reported, but their connection to the attack remains part of the investigation.4
France’s National Cybersecurity Agency, known by its French initials ANSSI, was instructed to investigate, Reuters reported, citing a person in Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s office. The same source said the agency had identified a vulnerability in software supplied by Danish company Danfoss. Danfoss told AFP that most affected equipment was legacy and no longer received software or security updates; some AK-SM800 systems were running outdated firmware.5
The disruption shows how a remote change to refrigeration controls can quickly become a physical and commercial problem. Supermarket systems use control panels to manage groups of fridges and freezers, and maintenance firms can access them remotely. The attack’s entry route, however, has not been established publicly.6
Security company Claroty disclosed vulnerabilities in Danfoss AK-SM 800A controllers in August and said Danfoss had issued firmware fixes. Neither that research nor the incident reporting examined here establishes that those specific flaws were used in the French attack.7
Ahold Delhaize separately said on 12 October that it was dealing with a security issue in its network and had taken some systems offline as a precaution; its stores remained open. The company did not link that incident to the French attack.8