Hackers Heat Supermarket Fridges Across France to 50C
Attackers took control of refrigeration software in several hundred French stores overnight, forcing units to 50C and holding them there. Some caught fire. The chief executive of one chain called it “of extreme gravity and unprecedented”. The prime minister has ordered the national cybersecurity agency to investigate and Paris prosecutors have opened a criminal inquiry.
Managers opened their stores to a wall of hot air and spoiled stock running to millions of euros. The route in was software from the Danish engineering firm Danfoss, which says it is aware of incidents affecting a limited number of refrigeration management systems and that the affected units were running outdated firmware, something it has long advised customers to update. That detail is why this travels: the same controllers sit in British supermarkets, and the vulnerability is in old kit rather than in anything exotic. France says it is coordinating with European counterparts because other countries may be affected, and the Dutch group Ahold Delhaize has reported a security issue of its own, taking systems offline and leaving electronic price tags showing the wrong figures in Belgium and Luxembourg — though no link between the two has been established. The European food commissioner Christophe Hansen drew the wider point: “Food security requires more attention at all levels. Because the weaponisation of food has become a reality.”