Major French supermarket chains said Monday they had been hit by a cyberattack that caused refrigerators in hundreds of stores to heat up, forcing spoiled food to be thrown out and raising concerns about food safety.
The major retail brands E. Leclerc, Intermarché and Coopérative U confirmed to AFP that they had suffered a cyberattack that the general director of Coopérative U described as “unprecedented”.
“Food safety requires more attention at all levels,” EU Food and Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen told X, condemning the attack and saying such “exploitation of food” was now a “reality.”
At least 300 Intermarché stores or its Netto brand were targeted, as well as more than 100 Coopérative U stores and several E. Leclerc stores, the brands told AFP in separate press releases.
“Targeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and the food supply of the French is extremely serious and unprecedented,” wrote Dominique Schelcher, CEO of Cooperative U, on X.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed the attack, which is also believed to have affected other major chains, and indicated that it had also started fires.
Stéphane Mahé / REUTERS 
According to BFM TV, hackers “managed to remotely trigger the forced defrosting of the refrigeration systems of many stores”.
The branches concerned will have to “discard all products” fresh and frozen, Intermarché told AFP.
Carrefour said 80 of its supermarkets were attacked but the vast majority of its 6,000 stores were unaffected, according to the Reuters news agency.
E. Leclerc confirmed to AFP “that a cyberattack hit one of its refrigeration equipment suppliers”, leading to “repercussions on the operation of the refrigeration systems of several stores”.
A source familiar with the matter said refrigeration control systems from Danish manufacturer Danfoss were targeted.
Danfoss told AFP in a statement that most of the affected equipment was “old” products that “no longer receive software or security updates.”
It said its AK-SM800 and AK-SC355 refrigerator control systems were particularly affected, with one version of the former using “outdated firmware.” He added that he had long advised supermarkets to update these models. Danfoss did not give any figures on the number of systems affected.
Dutch supermarket operator Ahold Delhaize, which also has operations in the United States, said it was also facing a “security issue” in its network, Reuters reported. A phone app for the retailer informed customers that due to a “cybersecurity incident,” it was unable to deliver groceries.
“Large-scale cyber attack”
A close friend of French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the French cybersecurity agency had already identified “a vulnerability in software provided by a Danish company and had contacted the publisher.”
“She is in liaison with her European counterparts, because other countries could be affected”, and seeks “to identify the other French companies involved in order to alert them” and “avoid the spread”, added the source.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP that an investigation has been opened into “the large-scale cyberattack affecting the refrigerators of several major food distribution brands across France”.
The investigation will make it possible to “identify the victims and establish the link with the damage they reported in terms of loss of food and fires”, indicated the prosecution.
Intermarché condemned the food waste and financial losses resulting from the attack, without providing figures.
According to BFM TV, temperatures were “modified remotely, leading to the destruction of stocks of fresh and frozen products”.
Growing fears of hybrid attacks
This incident comes amid growing concern about the potential devastation that malicious actors carrying out cyberattacks can wreak across all sectors in Europe.
President Emmanuel Macron, a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion, last month ordered measures to protect France’s critical infrastructure against Russian “hybrid attacks.”
Industrial equipment such as refrigeration units, long isolated from the Internet, are now connected via sensors or remote monitoring systems, Antoine Hautin of the cybersecurity consultancy Almond explains to AFP.
By likely affecting hundreds of units simultaneously, the attack demonstrated “a certain level of sophistication”, he added.
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