Top retailers E. Leclerc, Intermarche and Cooperative U confirmed to AFP they suffered a cyberattack that Cooperative U’s chief executive described as “unprecedented”.
“Food security requires more attention at all levels,” said the EU’s food and agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen on X, condemning the attack and saying such “exploitation of food” was now a “reality”.
At least 300 shops of Intermarche or its Netto brand were targeted, along with over 100 Cooperative U outlets, and several E. Leclerc stores, the retailers told AFP in separate statements.
Paris prosecutors confirmed the attack, which reportedly also hit other major chains, and also indicated it had sparked fires.
BFM TV said hackers “managed to remotely trigger the forced defrosting of the refrigeration systems in numerous stores”.
Those branches that were affected will have to “throw away all of the products” that are fresh and frozen, Intermarche told AFP.
E. Leclerc confirmed to AFP “that a cyberattack affected one of its refrigeration equipment suppliers,” resulting in “repercussions on the operation of refrigeration systems in several stores”.
A source close to the issue said refrigeration control systems from Danish manufacturer Danfoss were targeted.
Danfoss told AFP in a statement that most of the affected equipment was “legacy” products which “no longer receive software or security updates”.
It said its AK-SM800 and AK-SC355 fridge regulator systems were notably affected, with a version of the former using “outdated firmware”. It added that it had long advised supermarkets to update from those models. Danfoss gave no figures of how many systems were affected.
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