Hundreds of supermarkets in France suffer cyber damage; temperature of refrigeration equipment spikes, causing mass waste of food

[Paris Current Affairs] Hundreds of stores in France, including those of major supermarket chains, have fallen victim to a cyberattack, forcing them to discard large quantities of food. Local media reported this on the 12th. Authorities launched an investigation after the network-connected freezing and refrigeration equipment was put into forced defrost mode, causing the temperature to rise rapidly.

Cyber defense: sudden increase in inquiries; electronics majors strengthen their systems - unauthorized access

The cyber attack occurred around the 11th or 12th. The systems of supermarkets such as Carrefour, Monoprix, and Intermarche were targeted. Most of them are old models whose software and security measures are no longer updated. Television showed how frozen food shelves were emptied. In some cases, fires broke out.

An executive from one of the affected companies said on a TV news program, ``This is hell.'' The hacker ``switched all the equipment to defrost (defrost) mode and raised the (setting) temperature to 50 degrees,'' he said, adding that the amount of damage is expected to reach ``tens of millions of euros (several billions to billions of yen) nationwide.''