Hackers Wrecked French Supermarket Freezers. They Can Do It Again.

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In your daily dose of 'bizarre tech news,' hackers took control of the refrigeration systems across supermarkets in France and turned up the temperatures. Attackers remotely took over internet-connected refrigeration controllers and forced defrost cycles, causing temperatures to reach 50°C (122°F) overnight, spoiling stock and starting fires.

The worst bit? The refrigeration companies knew these flaws in the system.

Hackers remotely took over internet-connected refrigeration controllers across France last weekend. This happened at supermarket chains Carrefour, Monoprix, the Les Mousquetaires-owned Intermarché, and Coopérative U, among others. There's no official number yet, but the companies estimate that the losses from this attack will easily run into millions.

Carrefour counted 80 stores, and Monoprix said 5% of its roughly 490 stores were hit. Les Mousquetaires reported 150 shops attacked. The controller models involved, from Danfoss, Dixell and Dixell's parent Copeland, carried known critical flaws allowing remote administrator-level login. Two of the affected models by Danfoss were outdated and end-of-life. One of them was declared outdated in 2016 and the other in 2021.

This is, simply put, a network hygiene issue across an industry, rather than a bug in the system. Danfoss said the affected units were running outdated firmware and that it had long urged customers to update and to migrate legacy systems.

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That's exactly what makes this attack pernicious: It was widespread and easy to repeat. An independent cybersecurity report published in August exposed the vulnerabilities in Danfoss' systems. It revealed the ease with which attackers could bypass a login and take control of the software. But neither the supermarket companies nor the vendors feel responsible. France's retail federation is demanding full transparency from Danfoss, and Danfoss in turn is blaming customers' outdated software. So the liability and damages are unanswered questions for now. But the concern and alarm remain. Especially because France is not the first target. Similar attacks disrupted roughly a dozen U.S. military commissaries in late August that also led to food losses.

We can expect a battle over liability and insurance, especially since the damage runs into multiple million euros. Attacks like these, since they're cheap and easy to repeat, will continue to take place, if systems are not updated. AI will only add to the speed and scale of damage, which can be much bigger time.