Hackers heat French supermarket fridges, sparking fires and food losses
Retailers said hackers forced refrigeration systems into defrost mode, spoiling food and causing fires, with losses expected to reach millions of euros.
- 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.
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Several supermarkets in France have suffered a wave of cyberattacks that have affected their cooling systems leaving millions of losses. Belgium and the Netherlands have also reported similar events, but with a lesser impact. In the case of the Galo country, hackers accessed the system of remote control of cooling systems and ... Continue reading "A massive cyberattack hacks the refrigerators of hundreds of supermarkets in France and leaves mill…
Hundreds of supermarkets in France have been hit by a cyber attack on refrigeration systems, which has resulted in the destruction of large amounts of fresh and frozen products and financial losses of up to tens of millions of euros.
An intrusion paralysed supermarkets in France, Belgium and the Netherlands after violating remote temperature control and blocking automated boxes. More information: Who is responsible when an AI executes a cyber attack: from hackers to agents passing through multinationals
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