Hackers Turned French Supermarket Fridges Up to 122 Degrees
Hackers took control of refrigeration systems at hundreds of French stores overnight, driving temperatures to 122 degrees and forcing stores to throw out meat, frozen food and vegetables.
Hundreds of French supermarkets woke up Monday to a strange kind of burglary: someone had broken into their refrigerators overnight and turned the heat up.
The attack ran from Sunday night into Monday morning. Hackers got into the refrigeration control systems and forced the defrost cycle to run nonstop. Some units were pushed to 50 degrees Celsius — 122 degrees Fahrenheit — for about six hours.
Workers arrived Monday morning to find steam pouring out of the door seals. Everything inside had to be thrown away: meat, frozen food, vegetables.
A who’s who of French grocery
The hit list reads like the who’s who of French grocery retail. Broadcaster BFMTV reported roughly 300 Intermarché and Netto stores and nearly 100 Coopérative U outlets were affected. E. Leclerc, the country’s biggest supermarket operator, said a cyberattack had hit one of its refrigeration equipment suppliers, with repercussions in several of its stores. Carrefour said 80 of its supermarkets were affected. Monoprix was reported as a possible target but has not confirmed.
The timing was not confined to France. Stores owned by Ahold Delhaize in the Netherlands reported a cyber “incident” around the same time, though no link between the two has been established.
The common thread was the equipment
The targeted systems were refrigeration controls made by Danfoss, a Danish manufacturer. Hackers tricked the defrost feature — normally used to clear frost for short stretches — into running continuously instead of letting the cases hold their cold temperatures.
Danfoss said it was aware of the incident and was working with customers on mitigation. A company spokesperson said most of the affected products were legacy systems, including some for which software and security updates were no longer provided.
The bill is adding up
Two supermarkets in Alsace lost a combined €270,000 — about $302,000 — in spoiled stock, according to local reports. Nationwide, the damage could run into the millions of euros.
Dominique Schelcher, the chief executive of Coopérative U, disclosed the attack in a post on X on Monday morning and called it unprecedented. “Targeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and to the food supply of the French people is extremely serious,” he said. “It is unacceptable.”
Prosecutors are now involved
The cybercrime division of the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into what officials described as a large-scale cyberattack. France’s national cybersecurity agency identified a vulnerability in software from a Danish company, an aide to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said. Prosecutors are also examining reports that some refrigeration units caught fire.
What the attackers wanted is still unclear. No ransom demand has been reported, and no group has claimed responsibility. The identity and motive of the intruders remain unknown.
