PARIS, Oct 13 — In an unprecedented cyberattack targeting critical commercial cold-chain infrastructure, hackers remotely compromised the refrigeration and climate-control networks of hundreds of supermarkets across France, forcing internal temperatures to spike up to 50°C and destroying millions of euros worth of perishable foodstuffs.
The digital breach affected several of France’s largest retail operators, with at least 300 outlets belonging to Intermarché and its discount arm Netto compromised, alongside over 100 Coopérative U branches, 80 Carrefour locations, roughly five percent of Monoprix stores, and multiple E.Leclerc sites, according to reports confirmed on Tuesday.
The Paris Prosecutor’s Office stated that the attackers remotely forced connected refrigeration units into continuous automated defrosting cycles. The resulting temperature surges left stores with no option but to condemn and discard entire inventories of fresh, chilled, and frozen products. Isolated incidents of minor localized fires linked to overburdened equipment were also reported.
Intermarché Chief Executive Thierry Cotillard characterized the operational disruption as catastrophic, estimating nationwide financial damages across the retail sector in the tens of millions of euros within a single day.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu ordered the National Cybersecurity Agency of France (ANSSI) to lead a high-priority forensic investigation and liaise with European partners to assess whether cross-border supply chains were compromised.
Preliminary assessments by ANSSI revealed that the attackers exploited a vulnerability in supervisory control software developed by Danish engineering company Danfoss. In response, Danfoss stated that the exploit exclusively compromised systems operating legacy software versions and outdated firmware, noting that security notices had previously urged clients to install critical patches.
Cybersecurity analysts warned that the incident marks a coordinated disruption extending beyond France, with related technical anomalies detected across retail hubs in Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany, and Belgium. Security experts noted that the attack serves as an alarming proof of concept against real-world internet-connected industrial controls (OT/IoT), raising urgent concerns over the vulnerability of power grids, healthcare systems, and municipal cold chains to remote sabotage.
Sources: Al Jazeera English, Paris Prosecutor’s Office, and Agence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d’Information (ANSSI).