Hackers raise food retailers’ refrigerators to 50°C, affecting hundreds of stores in France

[Financial News] A cyberattack across France raised the refrigerator temperatures at several supermarket chains operated by food retailers to as high as 50°C, affecting hundreds of stores.
According to AFP and other news agencies, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on the 12th (local time) that several major food retailers across France had been hit by a large-scale attack.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu also ordered the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) to investigate.
Carrefour said 80 of its stores were affected, while Monoprix said 5% of its 490 stores were impacted.
Les Mousquetaires, which operates the Intermarché chain, said hackers had raised refrigerator temperatures in its systems to as high as 50°C overnight and that all affected food had been discarded because of health risks.
About 300 Intermarché stores and stores belonging to its sister supermarket chain Netto were targeted.
Coopérative U also had around 100 stores hit. Its CEO, Dominique Schelcher, wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Targeting equipment essential to preserving fresh food and supplying food to the French people is an extremely serious and unprecedented act.”
Les Mousquetaires said its systems management provider was the Danish refrigeration company Danfoss.
Danfoss said, “We are aware of what happened in France,” and added that it was working with its customers to mitigate the impact.
An official from the French prime minister’s office said France was working with other European countries because they may also have been affected.
Felix Eme, a senior cyber threat intelligence analyst at the Sequoia Threat Detection Institute, said Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium also appeared to have been affected.
European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen condemned the attack on social media, writing: “The weaponization of food is now a reality. Food security requires more attention at every level.”
  


[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, international affairs correspondent Reporter