Cyberattack on French supermarkets: Hackers defrost food refrigerators

On the night of October 12, a large-scale cyberattack occurred in France, as a result of which hackers remotely disabled refrigeration equipment in several hundred stores. This is with reference to the TV channel BFMTV informs BelTA.

According to the latest data, about 400 points of large retail chains and several offline stores were affected by the actions of the attackers. Losses of retailers across the country can amount to millions of euros.

The attackers gained remote access to the Danish company Danfoss’ refrigeration control systems, which are used in many French supermarkets. Hackers activated the defrosting function and set the temperature at 50 degrees Celsius. As a result, the products were not cooled, but heated for several hours.

In the morning, shop staff found that a "wave of heat was ripping out of refrigerators and freezers." To avoid poisoning customers, retail outlets had to completely dispose of both frozen and fresh goods.

France’s national information systems security agency has already identified a vulnerability in Danfoss’ software and warned of possible risks to its European counterparts. The incident is being investigated.

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