By Sana Noor Haq, CNN
(CNN) — Supermarket staffers were confronted by pools of water beneath freezers and spoiled produce earlier this week after hackers took control of refrigerators in hundreds of grocery stores across France.
Around 700 food retailers were impacted by the nationwide cyberattack, in which hackers remotely connected to refrigeration equipment, switched on defrost cycles that led to the loss of large quantities of fresh and frozen goods, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.
French authorities have opened an investigation into what the country’s Economy Minister Roland Lescure called a “wake-up call for everyone” in an address to lawmakers on Tuesday.
Here’s what you need to know.
Who caused the hack?
No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the cyberattack. The fact that hackers have not publicly demanded a ransom – as is often the case – suggests their primary aim was little more than to cause “mischief,” or “unsettle the public,” Ken Munro, a UK-based cybersecurity analyst, told CNN.
The hackers’ motivation is “unknown at this stage,” said Félix Aimé, principal threat researcher at French cybersecurity firm Sekoia. “To our knowledge, no public claim of responsibility has been made,” added Aimé, who previously worked at ANSSI, the French national cyber agency that is now handling the investigation.
The possibility that a lone hacker or hacktivist group carried out the attack cannot be ruled out, Aimé said. “An operation intended to destabilize certain economic activities, or infrastructure could also be considered,” he told CNN.
Moreover, the perpetrators do not appear to have used malicious code on the fridge controllers, potentially complicating efforts to track down who carried out the cyberattack, added Aimé.
The Paris prosecutors’ office said it took up the case under its national jurisdiction into the “large-scale cyberattack affecting the connected refrigerators of several major food retailers across France,” in a statement to CNN on Tuesday.
The investigation will “identify the victims and establish the link between the attacks and the damage they reported, in terms of food spoilage and fires,” the statement added.
How did the attack happen?
Fridge and freezer aisles in grocery stores are operated by controllers that can be accessed online, allowing maintenance firms to adjust the temperature remotely. In France, hackers penetrated controllers run by at least three firms – including the Danish company, Danfoss, the US-based company, Copeland and Dixell – according to a statement to CNN from ANSSI.
Shortly after the cyberattack, Danfoss acknowledged that many of the impacted units “no longer receive software or security updates” or were “running outdated software.” The company urged customers to “keep supported systems updated with the latest firmware.”
Copeland, which owns Dixell, identified a “vulnerability” in a “discontinued, end-of-life generation of controllers.” “We are currently working with impacted customers to mitigate the risk,” the company told CNN in a statement.
CNN has reached out to Danfoss for comment.
The Danish firm, or the fridge installers, may have erroneously put the controllers on the public internet “for anyone to see,” said Munro, a partner at the British cybersecurity organization, Pen Test Partners.
Before the cyberattack, more than 1,700 instances of the affected Danfoss software were exposed to the internet in France, offering the hackers a broad potential target pool, said Aimé.
Earlier this year, the cybersecurity company Claroty pointed out vulnerabilities in the controllers at the center of the attack – Danfoss AK-SM 800A – citing a mechanism that “could be abused” to “bypass normal authentication,” in a report published early August. That vulnerability can allow an attacker to remotely change the temperature settings for fridges running the affected software, added Aimé.
By tapping into units’ built-in defrost function and removing limits that would usually prevent the temperature from rising, perpetrators caused the refrigerators to thaw overnight, according to UK Cyber Defence, a security analysis firm. Display cabinets peaked at 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) for around six hours overnight Monday, with some even catching fire.
“It wasn’t hard to work out how to take control of the fridges,” said Munro, adding that unit management at these retailers was likely “outsourced to a third party who gave little to no thought to maintaining the security of these fridges.”
How widespread is the problem?
Major supermarket groups in France were hit by the attack, prompting warnings from retail executives that the cost of the damage could run into the millions.
As many as 80 supermarkets belonging to the French brand Carrefour were impacted, as were 5% of Monoprix’s 490 stores. Retail group Les Mousquetaires, reported that fridges at 150 shops had been targeted. About 80 Coopérative U stores were also affected, said its CEO, Dominique Schelcher.
How concerned should consumers be?
For consumers, there is not a lot to be concerned about, said Munro. However, he cautioned that management systems for the fridges involved must be “kept off the public internet” with validated security.
“There was no business need for the fridge controllers to be accessible on the public internet,” he said. “What I do recommend is that the boards of businesses ask probing questions of their suppliers. Who outsourced the management of these fridges and who had contractual oversight for their security? It doesn’t take much for one blind spot in a business to lead to tonnes of trashed food.”
The attack sparked a wave of criticism from European officials, just weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron instructed lawmakers to draft a new protection plan against the growing threat of cyberattacks in the country, and beyond.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting in Paris with political party leaders in September, Macron cited the “Russian hybrid threat facing Europeans and France,” adding that the risk had “intensified” in recent weeks, according to Reuters.
The EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Chrisophe Hansen warned that food security requires more attention at all levels.” “The weaponization of food has become a reality,” he posted on X on Monday.
Lescure, the French Economy Minister, allayed fears of the risk of food shortages in the country – but called on providers to bolster their cybersecurity measures.
“When we discovered this cyberattack, it worried us about the ability of our distribution chains to properly deliver food to all our fellow citizens,” he said on Tuesday. “This is a wake-up call for everyone.”
CNN’s Sean Lyngaas contributed reporting.
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