Post by @Armand1@lemmy.world

2026-10-17 06:50 UTC

Not cool: who hacked France’s supermarket fridges? In a “bizarre and unprecedented” cyber-attack, hackers had remotely overridden the temperature settings on thousands of freezers, fridges and chiller cabinets pushing them from as low as -27C (-16.6F) to well over 50C (122F). If shop managers first assumed it was an isolated failure, it soon became clear up to 700 stores – including those from the Intermarché, Coopérative U, Carrefour, Leclerc and Monoprix chains along with a number of smaller independent shops – had been victims of a cyber-attack. The hackers had pirated the controllers supplied by the Danish company Danfoss that controls the freezers and fridges. Most supermarket cold aisles are connected to the internet to allow remote maintenance and alerts for system failures. Initial investigations suggest the hackers disabled alarm systems before tampering with the thermostats, or extended the defrost programme by several hours to avoid triggering alarms. Danfoss said it had identified security flaws last year and had “long recommended” that customers install updates or replace obsolete unsupported systems. The affected refrigeration units were “running outdated firmware”, it said. In the days following the first wave of attacks, France’s cyber-attack alert centre ANSSI confirmed supermarkets using controllers from two other companies were also targeted.

Replies (12)

@ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 2026-10-17 07:13

Baduntss

Open ##5230211
@Ninja876@lemmy.world 2026-10-17 07:14

Why do you need a web enabled fridge/freezer? I want a SNMP/Trap alarm when temp is getting near outside the “safe zone”. One way, I set the numbers local, can’t be changed otherwise. Its simple (as am I), why does it need to be on the “cloud”??? AM I TAKING CRAZY PILLS?

Open ##5230270
@notannpc@lemmy.world 2026-10-17 07:16

Some fun reading for anyone interested cyberplace.social/…/117429502412235079

Open ##5230348
@Zephorah@discuss.online 2026-10-17 07:22

I get it, appliances shouldn’t be connected, and don’t need to be connected, but groceries are expensive enough.

Open ##5230536
@HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-10-17 07:42

Russia

Open ##5231080
@Treczoks@lemmy.world 2026-10-17 07:51

Hacked? This term applied to this is an insult. The user name was “admin”, and the password changed daily - it was the current date. This is not hacking, this is a complete and utter failure on behalf of the company who set this up, and their fault entirely.

Open ##5231333
@Treczoks@lemmy.world 2026-10-17 07:51

Hacked? This term applied to this is an insult. The user name was “admin”, and the password changed daily - it was the current date. This is not hacking, this is a complete and utter failure on behalf of the company who set this up, and their fault entirely.

Open ##5231337
@myyass@lemmy.world 2026-10-17 15:38

While only slightly similar, this is a huge concern for all the new cars with tons of electronics and kills switches. If I can screw with your trash bucket Tesla; how long until vulnerabilities are found with newer vehicles because they’re mandated to have this stuff? I get this is a mostly US issue but something tells me this will spread.

Open ##5239318
@itsjustachairmary@lemmy.world 2026-10-17 21:51

Would it be a good idea to make sure not all of these machines have a single point of failure as well Like. Could they perhaps spread several nodes (and I mean, physically even) that maintain a smaller group? So even if one is accessed it would be say, 150 stores, not 700. Still horrible, but like. Not as bad as 700. I know most supermarkets have this one central hub that manages these things and this made me realize that this can happen to every single one of these chains.

Open ##5241899
@lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world 2026-10-18 07:58

122F?! Why the hell would a fridge have that setting? Also, don’t make appliances that connect to the Internet. That’s fist fucking stupid. Of course some kid is going fuck shit up. There are Black Swan Events and then there are Common Pigeon Events.

Open ##5244898
@ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-10-18 13:12

Stop. Putting. Internet. In Everything.

Open ##5253140
@LeftReddit2@lemmy.world 2026-10-18 18:48

I feel like I need more context. Like, there had to have been a benefit to having your fucking fridges on a network, right? Like were dumb fridges worse in some way? Did this allow for them to have more control over all the fridges? Like just why are we connecting fridges to the internet?! I really feel like I need more of an answer to why we did this and how we got here.

Open ##5253164