Hackers increased refrigerator temperatures, causing food spoilage in hundreds of supermarkets
According to Reuters, the Paris Prosecutor's Office said on October 12 that a large-scale cyber attack was "affecting network-connected refrigerators at several large retailers across France", leading to food damage and fires.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has directed the French National Cyber Security Agency (ANSSI) to investigate. The country is also coordinating with European partners to respond. Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium were also affected, according to Felix Aime, senior cyber threat intelligence analyst at the threat detection and research organization.
Carrefour confirmed that 80 of its supermarkets were attacked. Meanwhile, Monoprix, which operates 490 stores in France, said 5% of stores were affected. Les Mousquetaires, the group that owns the Intermarché retail chain, said refrigerators at 150 of their stores had their temperatures increased to 50 degrees Celsius for 6 hours overnight. A spokesperson for the group confirmed that all affected food has been destroyed to eliminate risks to consumer health.
Geert de Clercq, a resident of Paris, witnessed staff at the Intermarché supermarket in the center of the capital emptying carts full of defrosted frozen food into large trash bins. Melted ice cream spilled onto the street from broken boxes.
Dominique Schelcher, leader of supermarket group Cooperative U, said their retail system also became the target of the attack. "Targeting essential equipment to preserve fresh food and ensure food supply for the French people is a particularly serious and unprecedented act," he wrote on Twitter.
There is currently no estimate of total damage to the entire industry. However, Thierry Cotillard, CEO of Intermarché, told BFM TV that the attack could cause "tens of millions of euros in damage across France in just one day".
Christel Delberghe, General Director of the European Retail Association (EuroCommerce), commented: "The incident shows the importance of disruption resilience throughout the entire supply chain."
Supermarket refrigerator and freezer ranges are often operated by control panels accessible over the Internet so that maintenance companies can adjust the equipment from anywhere.
A source close to French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said ANSSI had identified a vulnerability in software provided by Danish company Danfoss.
Danfoss said it "is aware of incidents in France affecting a limited number of refrigeration management systems". According to the company, these devices "are running outdated firmware versions". They "have long recommended that customers update to the latest firmware, converting legacy systems to the current generation solution".
Previously, on August 9, the Team82 research group of cybersecurity company Claroty published a detailed report on vulnerabilities in Danfoss's AK-SM 800A controller. A software update released by Danfoss fixes a bug that could allow attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms and execute code on devices.
The new attacks are assessed to have similarities with incidents at 12 food supply stores for the US military at the end of August, causing food to be damaged due to the affected refrigerator system.
The French Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD) called on Danfoss to be "completely transparent" about the incident. The organization said supermarkets are working to protect consumers and restore normal operations as soon as possible.
Chau An (according to Reuters)