Grocery Cyberterror in France (3 Photos)
Hackers defrosted freezers across more than 300 French supermarkets in a major cyberattack. Tens of tons of food spoiled, with financial damages estimated in the millions of euros. 
Hackers in France breached refrigeration control systems across hundreds of supermarkets. Overnight on October 12, the attackers switched the cooling systems into defrost mode, setting the temperature to 50 degrees. After being exposed to heat for several hours, massive amounts of food spoiled. Fires also broke out in several locations.
The cyberattack hit the Coopérative U chain and roughly 150 Intermarché locations. Carrefour reported that 80 of its roughly 6,000 stores in France were impacted. Refrigeration system breaches were also recorded at Netto and Leclerc stores.
Supermarkets were forced to toss out huge quantities of ruined groceries. According to French news outlet BFMTV, total losses across retail chains could easily reach millions of euros. 
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu tasked the National Cybersecurity Agency of France (ANSSI) with investigating the incident. According to a Reuters source, ANSSI determined that the hackers exploited a software vulnerability in refrigeration control units manufactured by Danish company Danfoss. 
Danfoss stated that it is aware of the incidents in France, which affected a limited number of refrigeration control systems. The company explained that the compromised devices were running outdated firmware, adding that customers had been urged long ago to update to the latest software version or replace aging hardware.
