MAJOR FRENCH SUPERMARKET chains have said they were hit by a cyberattack that caused their refrigerators to shoot up in temperature in hundreds of stores, forcing spoiled food to be thrown away and raising concerns about food security.<\/p>\n
Top retailers E. Leclerc, Intermarche and Cooperative U confirmed to AFP they suffered a cyberattack that Cooperative U\u2019s chief executive described as \u201cunprecedented\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFood security requires more attention at all levels,\u201d said the EU\u2019s food and agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen on X, condemning the attack and saying such \u201cexploitation of food\u201d was now a \u201creality\u201d.<\/p>\n
At least 300 shops of Intermarche or its Netto brand were targeted, along with over 100 Cooperative U outlets, and several E. Leclerc stores, the retailers told AFP in separate statements.<\/p>\n
Paris prosecutors confirmed the attack, which reportedly also hit other major chains, and also indicated it had sparked fires.<\/p>\n
BFM TV said hackers \u201cmanaged to remotely trigger the forced defrosting of the refrigeration systems in numerous stores\u201d.<\/p>\n
Those branches that were affected will have to \u201cthrow away all of the products\u201d that are fresh and frozen, Intermarche told AFP.<\/p>\n
Specialist French retail sector news website jebosseengrandedistribution.fr said other retail giants Carrefour Market and Monoprix were affected, but the companies have yet to confirm this.<\/p>\n
E. Leclerc confirmed to AFP \u201cthat a cyberattack affected one of its refrigeration equipment suppliers,\u201d resulting in \u201crepercussions on the operation of refrigeration systems in several stores.\u201d<\/p>\n
A source close to the issue said refrigeration control systems from Danish manufacturer Danfoss were targeted.<\/p>\n
Danfoss told AFP in a statement that most of the affected equipment was \u201clegacy\u201d products which \u201cno longer receive software or security updates\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said its AK-SM800 and AK-SC355 fridge regulator systems were notably affected, with a version of the former using \u201coutdated firmware\u201d. It added that it had long advised supermarkets to update from those models. Danfoss gave no figures of how many systems were affected.<\/p>\n
– Effort to contain the hack –<\/p>\n
A person close to French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said France\u2019s cybersecurity agency had already identified \u201ca vulnerability in software supplied by a Danish company and has contacted the vendor\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is liaising with its European counterparts, as other countries may be affected,\u201d and is seeking \u201cto identify other French companies involved in order to alert them\u201d and \u201cprevent the spread\u201d, the source added.<\/p>\n
Dominique Schelcher, chief executive of Cooperative U, described the attack as \u201cunprecedented\u201d and confirmed the cyberattack had affected refrigeration systems since Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cTargeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and to the food supply of the French people is extremely serious and is unprecedented. It is unacceptable,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n
He added that the company\u2019s teams were \u201cfully mobilised\u201d to restore the situation as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn investigation will be necessary to shed full light on this attack,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The office of the Paris prosecutor confirmed to AFP that an investigation has been opened into \u201cthe large-scale cyberattack affecting the refrigerators of several major food retail chains across France\u201d.<\/p>\n
The probe will help \u201cidentify the victims and establish the link with the damage they reported in terms of foodstuff losses and the outbreak of fires\u201d, the prosecutor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Intermarche condemned the food waste and financial losses resulting from the attack, without providing figures.<\/p>\n
BFM TV said temperatures were \u201caltered remotely, resulting in the destruction of stocks of fresh and frozen products\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
Rising fears of hybrid attacks<\/p>\n
The incident comes against the background of growing concern over the potential havoc that can be caused in Europe in all sectors by malicious actors carrying out cyberattacks.<\/p>\n
President Emmanuel Macron, a strong supporter of Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion, last month ordered measures to protect France\u2019s critical infrastructure from Russian \u201chybrid attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n
Industrial equipment such as refrigeration units, long isolated from the internet, is now connected via sensors or remote monitoring systems, Antoine Hautin of cybersecurity consultancy Almond told AFP.<\/p>\n
By likely affecting hundreds of units simultaneously, the attack demonstrated \u201ca certain level of sophistication,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MAJOR FRENCH SUPERMARKET chains have said they were hit by a cyberattack that caused their refrigerators to shoot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,21553,3312,276638,56299,1814,61,60,15348],"class_list":["post-652763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cyberattack","tag-cybersecurity","tag-danfoss","tag-food-security","tag-france","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-supermarkets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}