Hundreds of supermarkets across France have been hit by a large cyberattack that targeted their connected refrigeration systems and forced stores to throw away fresh and frozen food, Al Jazeera reports, citing AFP and Reuters.

The attack began on Sunday night. Hackers reportedly raised temperatures in refrigeration units to as high as 50°C and triggered forced defrosting. Fires broke out at several stores. Reported store counts include:

  • Intermarché, including its Netto brand: at least 300

  • Coopérative U: more than 100

  • Carrefour: 80

  • Monoprix: about 5% of its roughly 490 stores

  • E.Leclerc: “several” stores

Intermarché said stores must discard all fresh and frozen products. Its CEO, Thierry Cotillard, estimated losses of “tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day”. Coopérative U chief Dominique Schelcher called the attack “extremely serious and … unprecedented. It is unacceptable.”

Investigators identified a vulnerability in software supplied by Danish company Danfoss. Danfoss said the affected units “were running outdated firmware” and that it was aware of incidents in France affecting a limited number of refrigeration management systems. Claroty published research on August 9 describing Danfoss vulnerabilities, but it isn’t confirmed that the attackers used those flaws. Nobody has been identified as responsible.

The Paris prosecutor’s office is investigating the “large-scale” attack. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has ordered the national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, to investigate, and France is working with European counterparts to check whether other companies are at risk. Reuters, citing Sekoia analyst Félix Aimé, reports that Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium were also affected. Some stores have reopened and others are working to restore normal service.

Cybersecurity analyst Steven Lachance called the attack “a global wake-up call” and said future targets could include energy infrastructure or hospitals.

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