Hackers manipulate refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets
publishers 54articles 60first reported 12 Oct, 14:04 UTCdeveloping since 12 Oct · 11 editions
Hackers remotely raised temperatures in refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets, spoiling food and causing fires or equipment damage at some locations, French authorities and retailers said.
The overnight attack pushed some fridges and freezers as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). Stores discarded fresh and frozen products because they could not verify that the cold chain had been maintained. The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation, while Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu directed France’s National Cybersecurity Agency, ANSSI, to investigate and coordinate with European counterparts.
Carrefour said 80 supermarkets were affected. Les Mousquetaires, which owns Intermarché and Netto, reported disruptions at about 150 stores, although other reports placed the group’s total closer to 300. Coopérative U and Monoprix also confirmed they were targeted. Published estimates of the nationwide total ranged from at least 350 to about 700 stores as retailers continued assessing their systems.
The affected refrigeration controllers were supplied by Danish company Danfoss. The company said many compromised units were legacy products that no longer received security updates or were running outdated firmware. It said customers had previously been advised to install current firmware and replace older systems. ANSSI advised operators of affected equipment to disconnect it from the internet or restrict access and apply software updates.
No group had publicly claimed responsibility, and investigators had not disclosed how the systems were breached. No ransom demand had been reported.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 4 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 42 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- Source articles
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- Given to the writer
- 8, 4 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 42 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
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- Human review
- none
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