On the night of October 11 to 12, 2026, fridges and freezers in hundreds of French supermarkets began warming up after cyber attackers pushed refrigeration systems into defrost mode, heating cooling parts to melt ice. Some units reached 50°C (122°F), and some equipment reportedly caught fire, according to the Paris prosecutor. Stores were forced to discard fresh and frozen food. The attacks targeted refrigeration controllers made by Danfoss, a Danish industrial company.
An analysis of IPinfo's weekly Internet scans revealed that France had significantly more exposed fridge dashboards than the rest of the world combined — 1,331 against 1,197 in 72 other countries and territories. 85% of these systems ran software with known security flaws, including 527 older Danfoss controllers no longer supported. Only 195 had all known fixes applied. Most had been exposed online for at least six months. The number of fully updated French dashboards rose only from 14% to 24% between March 30 and October 6.
Over 400 stores were affected, with potential losses reaching several million euros. Carrefour reported 80 stores hit, while Intermarché and Netto (part of Les Mousquetaires) had more than 300 affected. Monoprix said about 5% of its stores were impacted. Leclerc and Coopérative U also confirmed attacks. Coopérative U's CEO, Dominique Schelcher, noted that 80 of its 2,000 stores were hit and that stores use Danfoss systems supplied by refrigeration contractors rather than purchasing directly. Danfoss identified the affected equipment as legacy models AK-SM 800 and AK-SC 355. CERT-FR issued warnings to disconnect or restrict access to these controllers and expanded its alert to include XWEB supervisors from Copeland and Dixell. The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation, but no one has claimed responsibility.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing