HUNDREDS OF FRENCH SUPERMARKETS HIT BY CYBERATTACK THAT SPOILED FOOD, SPARKED FIRES

Tue 13 October 2026:

Major retailers report losses as temperatures in fridges and freezers soar to 50°C; authorities launch investigation

A cyberattack on refrigeration systems at hundreds of supermarkets across France has driven temperatures in fridges and freezers as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122F), ruining food stocks and triggering fires at several locations.

Leading chains including Intermarché, Coopérative U, E.Leclerc and others confirmed the “unprecedented” cyberattack on Monday.

At least 300 Intermarché stores or those under its Netto brand were hit, along with more than 100 Coopérative U outlets, the companies told the AFP news agency.

Carrefour reported that 80 of its supermarkets were affected, while Monoprix said roughly 5 percent of its approximately 490 stores were impacted. E.Leclerc confirmed that several of its locations were targeted.

The Paris prosecutor’s office described the “large-scale” attack as one that had affected “connected refrigerators in several major food retailers across France”. The incident caused food losses and fires, the office said.

The attack led Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to direct France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) to investigate, according to a person in his office who spoke to the Reuters news agency.

The source indicated that France was coordinating with European partners because other countries could also be affected, and that authorities were evaluating whether additional French companies faced risks.

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‘Unprecedented’ attack

No immediate industry-wide loss figures were available, but Intermarché CEO Thierry Cotillard told BFM TV that the “unprecedented” attack would result in losses amounting to “tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day”.

BFM TV reported that the hackers “managed to remotely trigger the forced defrosting of the refrigeration systems in numerous stores”. This led to the “destruction of stocks of fresh and frozen products”, it said.

Intermarché informed AFP that affected stores would need to “throw away all of the products” that were fresh or frozen.

Dominique Schelcher, chief executive of Coopérative U, said refrigeration systems had been disrupted since Sunday night.

“Targeting equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and to the food supply of the French people is extremely serious and is unprecedented. It is unacceptable,” he wrote on X.

He added that company teams were working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible and that an investigation would be required to “shed full light on this attack”.

Supermarket cold sections are typically controlled by panels that manage an entire store’s fridges and freezers and can be accessed remotely over the internet, allowing maintenance firms to adjust them from anywhere.

The source close to Lecornu said ANSSI had identified a vulnerability in software supplied by Danish company Danfoss.

Danfoss stated it was “aware of incidents in France affecting a limited number of refrigeration management systems”.

The company said the affected units “were running outdated firmware”, adding that it had “long advised customers” to keep their systems updated and replace older equipment.

‘A global wake-up call’

The attack followed the publication on August 9 of research by cybersecurity firm Claroty that detailed vulnerabilities in Danfoss systems capable of allowing attackers to bypass authentication.

France’s retail federation, known as the FCD, urged Danfoss to provide “full transparency”.

It noted that some affected stores had already resumed operations.

Félix Aime, a senior cyberthreat intelligence analyst at Sekoia Threat Detection and Research, told Reuters that Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium had also been affected.

Steven Lachance, a cybersecurity analyst, told Al Jazeera that the attack was not unprecedented, though it was rare in its scale. He explained that once a vulnerability is discovered in internet-connected equipment, cyber-attackers can log in remotely and trigger its features.

“We have connected infrastructure that is live on the internet, and that can be hacked. It’s a new reality,” he said, describing the attack as “a global wake-up call”.

“We absolutely need national and international measures to prevent these attacks, because otherwise it’s just going to keep happening,” he said.

While retailers had lost millions of euros in food, Lachance warned that the next target could be more serious. “It could target energy infrastructure or hospitals,” he said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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