Cyber-attack heats French supermarket fridges to 50C, destroying fresh stock

Hackers remotely triggered defrosting in hundreds of French supermarkets, spoiling fresh and frozen food worth millions of euros overnight.

• Intermarché and Cooperative U say hackers forced refrigeration units in hundreds of their stores to heat to 50C overnight into Monday.
• Intermarché said affected branches threw away all fresh and frozen products to avoid health risks.
• The Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation into the attack, citing food losses and outbreaks of fire.
• Cooperative U chief executive Dominique Schelcher said targeting equipment essential to the French food supply is "unacceptable" and called for an investigation.
• French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu ordered cybersecurity agency ANSSI to investigate the attack.
• Authorities suspect hackers exploited a software vulnerability in Danish firm Danfoss refrigeration units running outdated firmware.
• Authorities warned other European countries could be affected, as Carrefour and Monoprix reported partial impacts.
• Attackers extended the defrost cycle from one hour to eight and delayed alarms and fault detection, investigators said.
• Temperatures in one affected store reached 80C, far beyond the 50C reported across most branches.
• Losses from destroyed stock could reach tens of millions of euros, the sources said.