French supermarkets throw away spoiled food after ‘large-scale’ cyberattack heated fridges

French investigators have launched a probe after an 'extremely serious and unprecedented' cyberattack hit hundreds of food retailers.

Earlier this week hackers forced the temperature of many supermarket fridges up to 50 degrees resulting in 'food losses and fires', according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

On Monday (12 October), it was confirmed that prime minister Sébastien Lecornu, had instructed France's national cybersecurity agency ANSSI to investigate.

The agency claimed it had already identified a vulnerability in software supplied by Danish company Danfoss, as per Reuters.

Danfoss said that affected stores in France 'were running outdated firmware' and that it had 'long advised customers to keep supported systems updated with the latest firmware'.

FOODbible has contacted Danfoss for comment.

Supermarkets impacted by cyberattack

Les Mousquetaires, owner of chains Intermarché and Netto, said around 150 of its stores were affected by the large-scale attack.

Fridges heated up to 50C for six hours, with a spokesperson confirming all food had been thrown away to avoid health risks.

Monoprix, which operates around 490 stores in France, said five percent were impacted, while 80 Carrefour were also involved in the cyberattack.

According to French broadcaster BFMTV, some E. Leclerc supermarkets had their fridges 'remotely trigger' by hackers, forcing 'defrosting of the refrigeration systems in numerous stores'.

Dominique Schelcher, chief executive of Cooperative U, confirmed to the BBC that 80 of its supermarkets had been hit by the 'extremely serious and unprecedented' attack.

"Targeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and to the food supply of the French people is of extreme gravity and is unprecedented," he wrote via X.

He also confirmed that a team had been 'fully mobilised' to resolve 'the situation as quickly as possible'.

Two supermarkets in the Alsace region reported losses of €270,000 (£228,000) between them as per BFMTV.

The BBC estimated that the nationwide loss total could therefore run into the millions.

Following the attack, supermarkets have been advised to unplug any smart fridges by the French Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-FR).

Other countries may be impacted by attack

Sadly, it seems as if the cyberattack may not have been confined to France.

Dutch supermarket company ‌Ahold Delhaize said it was also dealing with a 'security issue' in its network, and had taken several systems offline to protect them, The Guardian reported.

Despite the event, its Albert Heijn chain remained open in both the Netherlands and Belgium.

Belgium media said that Delhaize supermarkets, also part of Ahold Delhaize but operating in Belgium and Luxembourg, were also affected by the security issue.

Felix Aime, a senior cyber threat intelligence analyst at Sekoia Threat Detection and Research, said that Spain, Portugal, Poland and Germany had also potentially been affected.

However, it is unclear if there are any links between the issues reported at the cyberattack in France.

Speaking about the hack, Tom Hegel, research lead at cybersecurity monitoring company SentinelOne, said this could just be the first of many.

"With thousands of these interfaces still onine, I expect more incidents like this," he told CSO.