Hackers Heat French Supermarket Fridges to 50C

The attack targeted software from Danfoss, a Danish engineering company. The software lets shops control the temperature of their cooling units over the internet, so anyone who finds a weakness in the system can control the machines from anywhere. Freezers usually warm up a little at night to defrost, but the hackers ordered them to heat up and stay hot. A government source says the National Cybersecurity Agency of France (ANSSI) has found a weakness in the Danfoss software. Danfoss said the affected units were older models running outdated firmware and that it had "long advised" customers to update them. Officials have not said who carried out the attack. With growing worries about cyber-attacks in Europe, President Emmanuel Macron last month ordered measures to protect France's key infrastructure from Russian "hybrid attacks".

Intermarché's boss told French TV that losses could reach "tens of millions of euros" nationwide in one day. Two stores in Alsace alone lost €270,000. The European Commissioner for food, Christophe Hansen, warned that "the weaponisation of food has become a reality". The problem may not be limited to France: one cybersecurity expert said shops in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium were also affected. Some stores are already working normally again.