Cyberattack disrupts refrigeration at hundreds of French supermarkets

What happened

Cyberattack shuts down refrigerators at French supermarkets, according to The Record. A cyberattack overnight Sunday disrupted refrigerators at hundreds of French supermarkets, spoiling fresh food at stores run by some of the country’s largest grocery chains. Fresh food spoiled at stores run by some of the country’s largest grocery chains after attackers remotely triggered the units’ defrost function.

French broadcaster BFMTV reported that about 300 Intermarché and Netto stores and fewer than 100 Coopérative U stores were affected. France’s national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, said in an emailed statement that it was “mobilised to handle this incident” both at the national level to support potential victims and at the European level to coordinate with its counterparts.

BFMTV reported that the affected systems are refrigeration controllers made by Danish manufacturer Danfoss, and that the attackers targeted older versions of its software. Groupement Mousquetaires, which owns Intermarché and Netto, said the affected systems were managed by Danfoss, Bloomberg reported .

The group said it would be up to the supplier to file a criminal complaint. Security researchers have previously flagged weaknesses in Danfoss refrigeration controllers.