Refrigerators in French supermarkets are being targeted by remote hackers, who are dialing up their temperature to more than 120 degrees.
Paris authorities reported Monday that a large-scale cyber-attack is affecting connected refrigerators in several major food retailers across France.” The tampering, which affected hundreds of retail locations across the country, has caused loss of food inventory and resulted in fires.
“I confirm that a cyberattack has been affecting, since last night, the cold production facilities of several stores in our network,” said Dominique Schelcher, CEO of retail group Coopérative U. “Our teams are fully mobilized, in coordination with refrigeration specialists, to restore the situation as quickly as possible.”
Coopérative U is one of several major nationwide corporations that were affected by the attack, which will force vendors to trash the merchandise compromised by the temperature spike.
Schelcher characterized the incident as not only a burden for his company but a threat to French food security.
“An investigation will be necessary to shed full light on this attack,” the CEO said. “Targeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and to the food supply of the French people is of extreme gravity and is unprecedented. It is unacceptable.”
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has instructed ANSSI, the national cybersecurity agency, to investigate the sabotage.
The Paris prosecutor’s office also announced an investigation into “the large-scale cyberattack affecting the refrigerators of several major food retail chains across France.” The process will aim to “identify the victims and establish the link with the damage they reported in terms of foodstuff losses and the outbreak of fires.”
A vulnerability has reportedly been identified in software produced by Danish company Danfoss.
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Dutch supermarket operator Ahold Delhaize announced Monday that it too was experiencing a “security issue” amid a “cybersecurity incident.”
It is not immediately clear whether the issue affecting Ahold Delhaize is linked to the widespread cyberattacks in France.