Hackers heat French supermarket fridges, sparking fires and spoiling food

Hackers manipulated the temperature of refrigerators and freezers at hundreds of French supermarkets, reaching up to 50 degrees Celsius overnight. This caused fires and spoiled food, leading to significant losses. The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed a "large-scale" attack affecting connected refrigerators in multiple major food retailers across France.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu instructed France's National Cybersecurity Agency to investigate the incident. France is coordinating with European counterparts, as other countries may also be impacted. Carrefour and Monoprix reported that 80 and 5% of their stores, respectively, were affected. Les Mousquetaires, owner of Intermarche, said around 150 of its stores had their fridges heated to 50 C for six hours.

All affected food was discarded to eliminate health risks. Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize, which operates several supermarkets in France, also experienced a network security issue and took systems offline as a precaution. Industry-wide losses are still unknown, but Intermarche CEO Thierry Cotillard estimated them to be "tens of millions of euros nationwide."

Cybersecurity experts attributed the attacks to a vulnerability in Danfoss software, advising customers to update their firmware. The French retail association called for transparency from Danfoss regarding the incident.