Hackers heat French supermarket fridges to 50°C, sparking fires and food losses

French supermarkets faced a major cyberattack that forced the temperature of many refrigerators to rise to 50 degrees Celsius overnight, leading to fires and food losses in several hundred stores across the country. The Paris prosecutor's office reported the attack, which affected connected refrigerators in major food retailers, causing food losses and fires.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu instructed France's National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) to investigate the incident, and France is coordinating with European counterparts to assess the impact on other countries. Les Mousquetaires, which owns Intermarché, reported that about 150 of its stores were hit, with fridges heated for six hours.

They discarded all affected food to prevent any sanitary risks. Cooperative U CEO Dominique Schelcher confirmed his supermarket was also affected by the attack. Dutch supermarket operator Ahold Delhaize, which operates the Netherlands' largest chain Albert Heijn, reported a security issue in its network, taking several systems offline to protect them.

Physical stores remained open, but online orders dropped as rivals saw an influx of delivery requests. The attack is believed to have targeted vulnerable software supplied by Danish company Danfoss, whose units were running outdated firmware.