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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   18224 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 12, 2026

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https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/french-supermarket-chains-cyberattack-forced-115141288.html

Major French supermarket chains on Monday said they were hit by a cyberattack that caused their refrigerators to shoot up in temperature in hundreds of stores, forcing spoiled food to be thrown away and raising concerns about food security.

"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.

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.

Specialist French retail sector news website jebosseengrandedistribution.fr said other retail giants Carrefour Market and Monoprix were affected but the companies have yet to confirm this.

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It said its AK-SM800 and AK-SC355 fridge regulator systems were notably affected, with a version of the former using "outdated firmware".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.

A person close to French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said France's cyber security agency had already identified "a vulnerability in software supplied by a Danish company and has contacted the vendor".

"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 the company's teams were "fully mobilised" to restore the situation as quickly as possible.

"An investigation will be necessary to shed full light on this attack," he added.

Intermarche condemned the food waste and financial losses resulting from the attack, without providing figures.

BFM TV said temperatures were "altered remotely, resulting in the destruction of stocks of fresh and frozen products".

The incident comes against the background of growing concern over the potential havoc that can be caused in Europe in all sectors by malicious actors carrying out cyberattacks.

By likely affecting hundreds of units simultaneously, the attack demonstrated "a certain level of sophistication," he added.

This is a poetry of stupid and the hackers are the least guilty party here. Lets start with the obvious. Why freezers needs to be visible, why do they need to be remotely managed, why is not this done on dedicated internal network, why do they need firmware updates. How did we get to the point where a device that should be pid controller, compressor and alarm can be hacked.

To make you feel better - all of your nice EVs are also permanently connected and I doubt that there is air gap between the infotainment and the firmware of the battery pack. Someday someone will be able to accelerate or set on fire EV remotely. And probably soon.

the hackers are the least guilty party here.

No, the hackers are the most guilty. This was stupid and pointless, and the best reason I can put on it was to show that "next time we'll ask for ransom not to do this, this isn't a spoof, we just proved we could fuck your stores up", which is criminal behaviour.

Otherwise it's just destruction for the sake of it, spoiling food for nothing more than showing off how clever they are. Yeah, the stores should have better IT security, but who would have thought anyone would be destructive for the sake of mindless vandalism to do something like this?

Yeah, the stores should have better IT security, but who would have thought anyone would be destructive for the sake of mindless vandalism to do something like this?

Anyone frequenting IRC in the late 90s?

Do you have any proof that the hackers were in jurisdiction in which spoiling French food is a crime?

Do we really need to be at the point of "oh show me the jurisdiction where this activity is a crime" now? Whatever happened to "only fuckwits do this"?

I don't mind being a fuckwit.

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" while less true than in the 90s is still true enough today. Same as with malicious activities. Internet (okay apranet) was designed as military communication network capable of transmitting information even while severely degraded. That lead to a network that was anarchistic in its core. Just copy pasting meat space concepts and territories doesn't change its nature. Internet allows someone in Kenya to fuck you up in your country, in your home, in your bedroom for the lulz and destroy your life. This is why security is your responsibility - because the state as an entity that is entrusted and capable of providing protection is just not strong enough or not existing even in some contexts.

The only true internet crime is having bad opsec.

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