Domestic supermarkets, refrigerators ‘separate independent and network for each store’… “Low risk of hacking”

While cyber attacks that hack refrigeration and freezing facilities at supermarkets in 11 European countries and arbitrarily increase temperatures have spread, the domestic distribution industry manages refrigeration systems for each store and facility, so the possibility of similar large-scale damage appears to be low.

The supermarket refrigerator hacking incident that started in France last month spread to 11 European countries, including the UK, Germany, and Italy.

Damage continued, with hackers breaking into the refrigeration and freezing facility control system connected to the Internet, raising the temperature up to 50 degrees and discarding food. It is reported that about 700 stores in France suffered damage.

According to the distribution industry on the 4th, unlike Europe, domestic large supermarkets do not connect refrigeration facilities to an external network to control them remotely, so concerns about the spread of damage due to hacking are relatively small.

E-Mart operates refrigeration and freezing facilities through an individual control system in each store's disaster prevention room. It is not connected to an external network and is not structured to control all store facilities collectively through one system.

In the case of Lotte Mart, the temperature is individually managed for each refrigerated and frozen showcase. He explained that temperature settings and adjustments are also done manually on site, so concerns about remote control through external hacking are relatively low.

In addition, the company operates a monitoring system that can receive notifications when device failures or temperature abnormalities occur, and management and inspection are being carried out for each showcase.

Domestic convenience stores also reportedly manage refrigeration and freezing equipment on a store-by-store basis, and are independent equipment that is not connected to a wireless network, so there is no risk of hacking like in Europe.

In Europe, security vulnerabilities in older refrigeration facilities connected to the Internet were pointed out as being a conduit for attacks. There is also the possibility that security patches were not properly implemented in the process of remotely managing refrigeration facilities.