Refrigerators and freezers broke down in supermarkets in seven European countries after their remote control temperatures were raised, in some cases reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
The European Union condemned what it described as “a deliberate attempt to disrupt our food supply chain and undermine consumers’ confidence in it.”
Which stores were damaged...and what does that mean?
The attack targeted refrigerators in branches of Carrefour, Intermarche, and IKEA stores in Belgium, Cobb and ICA stores in Sweden, Delhaize in Luxembourg, Kesco in Finland, and Super Value in Ireland, in addition to stores in Estonia, according to a report by The Guardian newspaper.
The attack appeared to be a repeat of what happened three weeks ago, when French retail stores were forced to throw out huge quantities of food after their refrigerators suddenly overheated. As a result of unknown hackers taking control of Internet-connected device management software.
A similar thing happened in the United States in early August, when stores belonging to at least six military bases witnessed a series of mysterious malfunctions in refrigerators. The Pentagon is investigating the possibility of an electronic hacking.
It is feared that this indicates the opening of a new front in cyber attack and hacking methods. Refrigerators are not the only appliances whose control systems are exposed to hackers; Many ovens, washing machines, dishwashers, and central heating systems are connected to the Internet, allowing them to be accessed and controlled remotely automatically.
Who is behind the attacks?
No politically motivated “hacker” groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks, nor has any ransomware gang exploited this vulnerability to demand payment from stores, which would be difficult anyway; Because the damage has already occurred once the refrigerator temperature rises.
Raf Poling, senior director of threat intelligence at cybersecurity company Sophos, said: “I believe that the two most likely scenarios for determining who is responsible are a state-linked entity sending a message and demonstrating its capabilities, or a lone hacker carrying out these attacks for his own personal reasons.”
The hypothesis that the implementing agency is linked to a country seems most likely, partly due to the clear psychological impact that running out of food from store shelves has on large numbers of the population. It is believed that North Korea was behind the theft of cryptocurrencies from the Binance platform last week, but in this case, hackers linked to Russia and China are also likely among the suspects.
Western intelligence chiefs say that Moscow is waging a sabotage campaign in Europe that takes many forms, and is likely to escalate in the coming months.
The difficulty of determining the responsible party is compounded by the relative simplicity of the hacking process. There was no need to use malware, which means there was no trace of a hacking tool at the scene. Bowling likened it to “wearing rubber gloves and fiddling with the ignition switches.”
How does a store hack happen?
The software that runs store refrigerators is connected to the Internet; Which makes some lines of code vulnerable to hacker hackers. Unlike desktop computers and mobile phones, whose users and IT administrators often receive alerts to install updates that include fixes for security vulnerabilities that frequently appear, software used in devices such as refrigerators can go for long periods of time without updating.
Nick Jackson, director of cyber operations at the cybersecurity company BitDefender, said that one of the reasons why companies are slow in installing security updates may be that they take time to run. This imposes periods during which the appliances must be unplugged, which presents an obvious problem for food retailers. But he pointed out that a simpler explanation may be that those responsible for operating the refrigerators do not realize the existence of the problem, adding that “they do not think about the matter, and it is not their top priority.”
During the wave of accidents that occurred on Monday, the “Kob” supermarket chain in Sweden said that some of its refrigerators were connected to the fourth generation (4G) mobile communications network. Which makes it more vulnerable to hacking. ICA announced that its system is provided by the Danish company Danfoss, which faced problems in France.
What can stores do to protect themselves?
It can be done by updating its software systems to fill security vulnerabilities. According to the Belgian refrigerator manufacturing group “Sabcobel”, the repercussions of Monday’s attack could have been much worse, had it not begun upgrading its refrigerators after the October 12 attack in France.
In Britain, which has not been affected by the attacks so far, retailers are “currently working with the National Cyber Security Center to ensure that their fridges and freezers are as secure as possible in the face of potential attacks,” according to Graham Wynne, assistant director of regulatory affairs at the British Retail Consortium.
Why haven't British supermarkets been attacked yet?
According to cybersecurity firm Forescout, internet-connected cooling systems are becoming more common in countries including France, Italy, Greece and Belgium.
“When we examined the data on these online exposed systems in supermarkets, the UK was not in the top ten countries,” said Daniel Dos Santos, the company’s vice president of research. He added that the level of risk is not small, but said: “I cannot say that the risk is very high at the present time for the United Kingdom specifically.”
A spokesman for the National Cyber Security Center said that it is “working with its international partners and the industry sector to fully understand the details of an incident.”
