PARIS (MNN); Hackers targeted connected refrigerators and freezers at hundreds of French supermarkets overnight, raising temperatures to as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122°F), triggering fires and causing widespread food spoilage.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said on Monday that a “large-scale” cyberattack had affected connected refrigeration systems at several major food retailers across France, resulting in food losses and fires.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has directed France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) to investigate the incident. French authorities are also coordinating with European counterparts to determine whether other countries and businesses have been affected.
Felix Aime, a senior cyber threat intelligence analyst at Sekoia Threat Detection and Research, said the attack had also affected Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium.
French supermarket groups reported significant disruption. Carrefour said 80 of its stores had been hit, while Monoprix reported that around five per cent of its approximately 490 French outlets were affected.
Les Mousquetaires, the owner of Intermarché, said refrigeration units at around 150 stores had been heated to 50°C for six hours overnight. The company confirmed that all affected food had been discarded to eliminate potential health risks.
In central Paris, staff at an Intermarché outlet were seen dumping large quantities of thawed frozen food into a waste container, with melted ice cream spilling from damaged tubs onto the street.
Dominique Schelcher, chief executive of supermarket group Coopérative U, confirmed that his company had also been targeted. He described attacks on equipment essential to preserving fresh food and maintaining the national food supply as extremely serious and unprecedented.
Retailers E.Leclerc and Auchan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Although no industry-wide loss estimate was immediately available, Intermarché chief executive Thierry Cotillard told BFM TV that the unprecedented attack could cause losses amounting to tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day.
Christel Delberghe, director general of European retail association EuroCommerce, said the incident highlighted the importance of strengthening resilience throughout the entire supply chain.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the scale of the attack, its cross-border impact and the potential risks to other French businesses.
