Hackers heat French supermarket fridges, sparking fires and food losses
- A major coordinated cyberattack targeted commercial refrigeration systems across hundreds of French supermarkets overnight, remotely manipulating industrial cooling controls to trigger continuous forced defrost cycles and spike internal temperatures up to 50°C .
- The attack primarily impacted systems manufactured by Danish climate solutions company Danfoss, exploiting software vulnerabilities—previously flagged by security researchers in August—to override safety limits and run defrost heaters indefinitely.
- More than 300 Intermarché and Netto locations, nearly 100 Coopérative U stores, and several E.Leclerc outlets were hit, resulting in massive food spoilage, millions of euros in lost inventory, and localized electrical fire outbreaks triggered by overheating defrost elements.
- The Paris Prosecutor's Office opened a formal nationwide criminal investigation into the attack, while supermarket groups voiced concerns that standard commercial insurance policies may fail to cover damages caused by remote cyber sabotage.
- The breach occurred alongside a separate European retail cyber incident that disrupted website orders, delivery systems, and electronic shelf labels across Dutch and Belgian chains, including Albert Heijn and Delhaize.
462 Articles
462 Articles
In a cyberattack launched in France on the night of October 11th to 12th, the cooling systems of the country's leading supermarket chains were compromised. The attackers interfered with the temperature control systems of the refrigerators in the stores. More than 500 stores were affected in the attack, resulting in losses of millions of euros.
A hacker attack on hundreds of French supermarkets has put Danfoss in the spotlight. Coop Denmark and Salling Group are not affected, but are following the development closely.
Over 400 major retail stores across France were subjected to unprecedented, simultaneous cyberattacks overnight. Hackers remotely controlled refrigerators and freezers in large supermarkets, raising internal temperatures to 50 degrees Celsius. Fresh and frozen foods that melted overnight were discarded entirely, and fires even broke out in some stores. Amid mounting anxiety over hybrid attacks targeting key infrastructure in Europe,
A massive cyberattack has shut down refrigeration systems in hundreds of supermarkets in France, bTV reported. As a result of the attack, tons of chilled and frozen food had to be thrown away because the products had been stored at inappropriate temperatures. Hackers hacked into the software for remote control of refrigerators and freezers. They then triggered a forced defrost, which led to a sharp rise in temperatures in the stores. Systems tha…
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