Hackers heat French supermarket fridges to dangerous temperatures causing fires

Hackers remotely manipulated connected refrigeration systems at hundreds of French supermarkets. The activity reportedly pushed some fridges and freezers to 50C (122F). This extreme heat spoiled food and sparked fires in affected locations.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu ordered a cybersecurity investigation into the hacks. Similar incidents were also reported in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany, and Belgium. The scope suggests the attack extended beyond France's borders.

Store data shows significant impact on specific chains within France. Carrefour reported 80 affected stores while Monoprix said 5% of its locations were hit. Les Mousquetaires stated refrigerators at roughly 150 Intermarche stores were heated to 50C for six hours.

French security agency ANSSI identified a vulnerability in software supplied by Danish company Danfoss. The affected units were running outdated firmware according to the vendor. Danfoss said it was aware of incidents affecting a limited number of refrigeration management systems.

Security firm Claroty published research detailing vulnerabilities in the Danfoss AK-SM 800A controller on August 9. The software updates addressed issues allowing attackers to bypass authentication controls. This enabled code execution on the compromised devices used in the attack.

Another report stated hackers activated automatic defrosting across European supermarket fridges. This outlet also noted that store prices were impacted by the incident. These accounts differ slightly from reports focusing solely on temperature spikes.

Danfoss advised customers to keep supported systems updated with the latest firmware. They recommended migrating legacy systems to current-generation solutions. The vendor maintains this guidance was given long before the specific incidents occurred.