Food: Supermarket boss calls cyberattack on France's food supply 'unprecedented'

Paris, Dusseldorf. Spoiled food, empty shelves. A cyber attack on supermarkets has partially disrupted supplies in France. At least 500 stores from chains such as Super U, Carrefour and Monoprix are affected. Dominique Schelcher, managing director of Coopérative U, spoke on RTL broadcaster of an “unprecedented, unexpected and extremely serious attack”. This shows the vulnerability of certain systems and is an attack on the country's food security.

On the night of Sunday to Monday, hackers took control of the cooling systems within a few hours. As the Paris public prosecutor's office announced on Monday, networked refrigerators in the branches were heated to 50 degrees Celsius for hours overnight. According to the trade group “Les Mousquetaires”, the hackers managed to switch refrigerators and freezers to defrost mode on Monday night.

Tons of food had to be thrown away. It is still unclear who is behind the attacks. Although only a small proportion of the estimated more than 10,000 supermarkets in France are affected, questions are now being raised about the vulnerability of the food supply.