Cyberattack on 300 French supermarkets: refrigeration systems heated to 50°C
A cyberattack paralysed refrigerators in hundreds of French supermarkets on 12 October. The Les Mousquetaires group has valued the damage at tens of millions of euros.
"Hell" on the shelves: a cyberattack targets fridges at hundreds of supermarkets
According to bfmtv.com, a major cyberattack struck hundreds of French supermarkets on Monday 12 October, including E.Leclerc, Système U, Intermarché and Netto stores. The target: the refrigeration control systems made by Danish manufacturer Danfoss, whose equipment is deployed in numerous retail outlets across the country.
The attackers forced the installations into defrost mode, causing temperatures in the cold units to climb to 50°C. "The attack put all our cold units into defrost and raised their temperature to 50°C. It's a catastrophe, it's unprecedented, unprecedented at this scale," declared Thierry Cotillard, president of the Les Mousquetaires group, on BFMTV.
Cotillard described "an unprecedented crisis management" from the early hours of the incident. He specified that 300 Intermarché and Netto stores belonging to the group were affected. To preserve "food safety for customers", employees "emptied the affected shelves throughout the day". The president estimated the damage at "tens of millions of euros at the national level".
The Paris public prosecutor's office announced the opening of an investigation of its own initiative into "the large-scale cyberattack affecting the connected refrigerators of several major food retail outlets across the entire French territory". The investigation is led by the anti-cybercrime section and entrusted to the Anti-Cybercrime Office (OFAC). It should make it possible, according to the prosecutor's office, "to identify victims and establish the link with damage reported by them in terms of food losses and fire outbreaks".
The National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (Anssi) for its part identified a vulnerability in software supplied by Danfoss and made contact with the Danish company, according to the Prime Minister's office.
From a judicial standpoint, Thierry Cotillard predicted "a legal war" between the major French retailers hit by the attack and Danfoss, the manufacturer of the refrigeration equipment called into question.
Source: Google News LU FR