Overnight from Sunday to Monday, a large cyberattack hit the refrigeration systems of hundreds of French supermarkets, BFMTV revealed. The attackers targeted equipment from the Danish maker Danfoss that many French stores use to regulate their cold. Fresh and frozen stock was destroyed, and the Paris prosecutor says there were also fires.
The method is simple and nasty. Refrigeration systems have a forced defrost function that clears ice buildup, and the attackers appear to have triggered it remotely in a continuous mode, with a temperature setting of 50 degrees. The equipment heated for several hours instead of keeping goods cold, and when staff opened the fridges and freezers in the morning, a sector source told BFM, “a wave of heat” came out.
“300 Intermarché and Netto stores, and fewer than 100 U stores, were affected on Monday, October 12, by a cyberattack targeting the refrigeration control systems of the Danish manufacturer Danfoss, according to the two retailers.” reports BFMTV. “Hackers reportedly remotely altered the temperatures of the systems, causing the destruction of stocks of fresh and frozen products.
by Security Affairs – Hackers cranked French supermarkets’ freezers up to 50 degrees, causing hundreds of stores to lose their stock
