A large-scale cyberattack on networked refrigeration equipment has paralyzed hundreds of French supermarkets, raising temperatures in refrigerators to a dangerous 50 degrees Celsius and destroying huge quantities of food.
The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed the incident, which affected key retail chains across the country, after hackers managed to breach the digital protection of the systems. The giant Les Mousquetaires, which manages the Intermarché network, announced that about 150 of their sites were affected, and their refrigerators maintained the critical temperature of 50 degrees for six hours, which necessitated the complete disposal of stocks due to serious sanitary risks.
Also affected by the malicious intervention are Cooperative U and Carrefour, with the latter chain reporting 80 affected stores out of a total of 6,000 sites in its network, while competitors such as Monoprix, E.Leclerc and Auchan are remaining silent for now. In parallel, Dutch operator Ahold Delhaize also reported a security breach and a temporary shutdown of security systems, while customers were notified of the inability to receive their deliveries, although the link to the French events has not yet been officially confirmed.
The official investigation, entrusted to the French National Cybersecurity Agency ANSSI, revealed a vulnerability in the software of the Danish manufacturer Danfoss. The technology company commented that it was aware of the incidents in France, but stressed that the affected devices relied on outdated software versions that were not updated in time by the owners themselves. In response to the crisis, French authorities are coordinating their actions with European partners due to the serious risk of the attack spreading to other countries.