Hackers hit an unusual target in France as part of a cyberattack: freezers and refrigerators in hundreds of supermarkets.
The massive attack raised temperatures as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit overnight, causing food to spoil and sparking fires, Reuters reported.
Le Monde said hackers raised the defrosting system in freezers and cold-storage rooms and changed the defrost cycle from one hour to eight hours to prevent alarms from going off.
Supermarket freezers typically have a short defrosting period overnight, when temperatures rise slightly, the BBC said.
The supermarket cold aisles are controlled by panels that manage all refrigerators and freezers and can be accessed via the internet, Reuters reported.
The New York Times said more than 400 locations were hit.
The Associated Press said it was 700 out of 10,000 supermarkets. A major grocery chain had to shut down its websites across Europe and the U.S. Ahold Delhaize said it was working to restore systems. The company operates Stop & Shop, Food Lion and Giant Food in the U.S.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed the attack, saying that it was “affecting connected refrigerators in several major food retailers across France.”
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu directed the country’s cybersecurity agency to investigate, while France works with other European countries in case others are at risk.
Felix Aime, a senior cyber threat intelligence analyst at Sekoia Threat Detection and Research, said Spain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium were also affected.
Carrefour said 80 supermarkets in its chain were hit. Monoprix said 5% of its 490 stores were affected. Les Mousquetaires said about 150 stores were targeted.
“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,” Cooperative U CEO Dominique Schelcher said on X.
Mousquetaires said Danfoss, a Danish refrigeration firm, managed the system, Bloomberg reported.
The company said it had advised customers to keep supported systems updated with the latest firmware, the Times reported.
The company said the affected units were older models with security software that could not be updated, according to the BBC.
It is not known who was behind the alleged attack.
The attack is estimated to have cost “tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day,” Intermarché CEO Thierry Cotillard said, according to Reuters.
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