Following Europe, the United States is also on alert... “Risk of cyber attack on refrigerated and frozen facilities”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Yong-rae = The U.S. government issued a warning that the threat of cyber attacks on industrial refrigeration and freezing systems continues.

According to foreign media such as Reuters on the 5th (local time), the U.S. administration said in a statement released on this day that entities operating refrigerated and frozen storage facilities should prepare on the premise that these facilities may be targets of hacking.

In a joint statement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and federal health, transportation, and agriculture agencies warned that hackers are targeting security vulnerabilities in Internet-connected electronic thermostats and commercial refrigeration controls used in grocery retailers and refrigerated and frozen storage facilities.

They expressed concern that "if hackers exploit vulnerabilities, they can change the temperature (of refrigeration and freezing facilities), which may result in physical damage such as fire risk, loss of stored items, and shortened facility lifespan."

“Any organization that relies on refrigeration, refrigeration and temperature monitoring systems should assume that they could be a target of an attack,” said Chris Butera, Acting Associate Director for Cybersecurity at CISA.

Industrial refrigeration and refrigeration control system operators were urged to separate related equipment from the public Internet network, isolate it from the company's internal network, and quickly update software security.

This statement came amid a series of recent hacking attacks targeting commercial refrigeration facilities in the United States and Europe.

According to a report by Reuters last week, the U.S. Department of Defense is investigating a series of unexplained malfunctions that occurred in refrigeration and freezing equipment at grocery stores at military bases in the U.S. in August, believing it to be a cyber attack.

Last month in France, hackers increased the temperature of refrigeration and freezing equipment in hundreds of supermarkets, causing fires and large quantities of food to be thrown away. There were also estimates that the damage could amount to tens of millions of euros.

On the 2nd of this month, similar incidents occurred at supermarkets in several European countries, including Sweden, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and on the same day, a cyber attack that abnormally increased the temperature settings of refrigeration facilities also occurred at three facilities under the French Blood Management Agency.