Coopérative U, Intermarché, E.Leclerc, Carrefour… A cyberattack affected the refrigeration infrastructures of hundreds of supermarkets

A hack of a unique kind. This Monday, several major retail brands indicated to Le Figaro that they had suffered a cyberattack during the night from Sunday to Monday targeting their refrigeration infrastructures. If the causes of this action are still mysterious, the consequences are real: a significant part of the frozen products had to be thrown away.

At Coopérative U, less than a hundred supermarkets are affected. As for the Mousquetaires Group, at least 300 Intermarché and Netto points of sale were affected. The group estimates losses at “several million euros”, without precise figures at this stage. For its part, E.Leclerc also confirms a “computer attack [which] affected one of its refrigeration equipment suppliers”. Carrefour was also affected, ensuring however that “the vast majority of our store base is not affected”. “The malfunction mainly affected 80 supermarkets out of our 6,000 stores,” he said. The Casino group was not spared either: “5% of the Monoprix store network is affected and the group’s other brands are not affected,” detailed the group.

The cyberattack targeted the software of the Danish company Danfoss, which manages a large part of the refrigerators of French mass retailers. Software versions prior to version 4 were targeted. Hackers would have managed to take control of the forced defrosting of refrigeration installations, to disrupt temperatures remotely and thus undermine the conservation of thousands of food products.

An “unacceptable” attack

According to the Paris prosecutor's office, which announced the launch of an investigation on its own initiative, there were also “fires,” reports AFP. The Ministry of Commerce indicated that it was “in contact with distributors”.

“After 25 years in mass distribution, I would never have thought that this would happen to us, such an attack has never happened to me,” says, stunned, Sophie Matt, boss of the Intermarché d’Haguenau (Bas-Rhin). In the early morning, its night teams found abnormally very hot refrigeration infrastructures. Hot air at 50 degrees was programmed by the hackers, causing the temperature of the refrigerated units to rise to 36°C, explains the manager. She estimates her losses at 50,000 euros.