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Hackers remotely defrost refrigerators at hundreds of French supermarkets
'Unprecedented' cyberattack targets refrigeration units at hundreds of French supermarkets
Hundreds of French supermarket chains were targeted overnight Sunday to Monday in a cyberattack that affected the refrigerators of up to 200 Intermarché stores and almost 100 Coopérative U locations, according to the retailers. Carrefour said that 80 of its supermarkets had also been hit.
Major French supermarket chains Intermarché, Coopérative U and Carrefour were hit by a cyberattack that caused their refrigerators to defrost, the two retailers told AFP on Monday.
Some 150-200 Intermarché shops were targeted in the attack, along with almost 100 Coopérative U outlets, they said.
Paris prosecutors confirmed the attack, which reportedly also hit other major chains, and also indicated it had prompted fire outbreaks.
The chief executive of Cooperative U, Dominique Schelcher, described the attack as "unprecedented" and confirmed the cyberattack had affected refrigeration systems since Sunday night. ....
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20261012-french-supermarket-chains-say-cyberattack-shut-down-refrigerators
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Several supermarkets were forced to discard fresh and frozen food, Intermarché said, and have yet to estimate the losses. The Paris prosecutor has opened an investigation.
https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/12/hundreds-of-french-supermarkets-hit-by-cyberattack-on-refrigeration-systems
Yep, saw it as well. Sad, I would never support this type of hacking when there is plenty of hunger in the world. Yes, this food will probably not contribute to the solution but still wasting food is meh.
Why you would connect your freezer to the internet?
Management probably want to monitor the temps for food safety
france in turmoil, yea shitty wasteful.
This is a shitty thing to do as a hacker. I mean, you could do a lot of things, but this?
why defrost when you can run coin miner on them.
Absolutely connect them to the network, but only the sensors. Temp control legit should be done in person, not remotely. Having the senors hooked up to some system that can remote ping people will save companies millions as they can react before the food defrost/go bad.
Also they probably had there whole network infected and lost all data they have. Wonder if the hacker did this to distract them company while they steal everything.
Reach before defrost, funny. What about fire?
There should be some ethics in hacking, i mean, hospitals, railway, food or infrastructure is a bit far for my view.
I mean, the fuq is wrong with some, I get that some think it is cool to do that for "reasons" , yet there should be some kind of limits.
Imagine taking down traffic lights on a busy day in NYC, or any other metropol, should the "smart guys" be accounted for murder as a result of lives lost in accidents?
I never understand why these things need to be connected to the internet. Sure, having a central place to monitor/control is probably nice but give it its own network with a "server" in the backroom. If you want to monitor it remotely, send all the sensor data elsewhere from that server so there's only read access.
That's understandable. However, it's supposed to be someone else job while tidying mess. In fact, a read only logging suffice. Cranking up the refrigeration isn't energy efficient when someone left the door open.
We can't assume people to have the same morality with us. For example, the copper thieves that stole cables for few hundred bucks while it costs the society tens of thousands, if not more in economic losses.
Lets have a Smart Fridge, someone said. What can go wrong.
Hi,
well... if this would be another 20000000th hack of what ever company, no one will know it as no one will talk about it, as its simply no news.
So if you want, as a hacker/hacking group, to get some attention, then do something that people will talk about....
In other words: this thread is part of the public attention that will motivate the next hacking (group) targeting something similar :-)
In other words #2: less food for the trolls = less trolls.
And in case someone was not yet sure about missing moral values nowadays... well... welcome to the planet earth in the year 2026 nice to see you crawls outside of your cave... please enjoy the result and pinnacle of human evolution :-)
deserved. maybe put your nuclear power plant on the open internet next time for more funsies!
ohh my icecream
Supermarket freezers and refrigerators are connected to the internet to allow for centralized control, energy optimization, automated defrost cycles, and remote troubleshooting. Instead of managing every single cooling unit manually, supermarkets use centralized control panels that connect to the internet.
In this case hackers exploited outdated firmware on Danfoss refrigeration controllers.
(Don't forget to start a Danfoss rant/alternatives thread and replace the cooling system in your broom closet datacenter.)
the question still stands... why is it connected to the internet. you can realize that all without internet access
The technicians are often third party companies, and the system is build to make things easy and save money, not overcomplicate everything.
Internet connection isn't a problem as long as it's made secure, and the software get updated.
It gives more sense to ask:
Why have they not updated the firmware?
And why do most of you make the same mistake with your servers, switches, firewalls etc.?
For some reason, this reminds me of the basement ISP we had.
He had a printer on the same LAN, someone started to make it randomly print shit.
Grocery retailers are antiquated industry. They're stuck with the "if it's not broken then don't do anything" mindset, despite opting for expensive botnet addons. Sure, it will save money. But, it exposed them to unnecessary risks. This could have been mitigated with remote hands.
Of course, automate something to reduce man hours ... and then use remote hands as the solution.
You have an amazingly unique way of not letting logic interfere with your opinions.
Hmm, let me get this straight
1. temperature of chiller/freezer read-only: safe
2. modifying target temp., power cycling through internet: dangerous without proper maintenance
Do #2 with remote hands
its part of the 'ai is bad' narrative, which is everywhere in the mainstream. The coming regulations will keep Europe in its medieval times.
This is why i believe : "Anything that Marketed "Smart Shit" were actually Stupid.
Making basic stuff need connected to internet are just a dumbass idea
Due to the events taking place in the country, someone decided to show the strikers that they were not alone.
yea but you have to imagine how it was marketed to the c-suite, one secretary mashing a button in a web interface vs. potential remote hands for 500k stores to adjust a freezer case temperature.
we can say obviously this shit shouldn't have been on the internet but if you've had a job you know how these things work irl man.
The owners hope that one day they will be able to control everything using AI and fire as many people as they can, they hope to fire everyone eventually.
To achieve that goal they need to control everything remotely not just the ability to read sensors.
The risks were calculated and deemed as worth taking.
It's 2026, they should be able to use most employees but at least management at minumum to be the "remote hands." I mean, they already use computers (most are *nix thinclients) for the checkout/all the systems so it shouldn't be that hard to design something simple. When I worked in restaurants, everything was handled with employees/management except actual repairs which then "professionals" were called in. Those repairs couldn't happen over the internet...