Linus Larsson: You don't need to connect exactly everything to the network

Just a few weeks ago, someone hacked hundreds of French grocery stores. Their freezers were turned into warming cabinets, 50 degrees warm, and the food was ruined.

Now something similar seems to have happened in Sweden. A number of Coop and Ica stores are reporting problems with the freezers, with at least one confirming they have been hacked.

We don't know how it happened. But most indications are that the breach in France was possible because the supplier of the freezers, Danish Danfoss, had a security hole at the Åsa Nisse level: The temperature could be controlled via a web server, which anyone could log in with the username "admin" and a password that could be calculated based on today's date.

The vulnerability was discovered in the summer of 2025. Anyone who cared enough would have had plenty of time to install an update when the hackers struck in October 2026. It's not entirely confirmed that this particular bug was behind the breach, but Danfoss has said that those affected were using old, out-of-date software.

If the same thing is behind what has now happened to Swedish grocery stores, then it is yet another reminder: Every gadget that is connected to the network is a potential security problem. They must be maintained and updated. Otherwise, you can almost expect that they will be hacked sooner or later.

If it seems like an unmanageable burden, then maybe you should think about a completely different thought: You don't have to connect exactly everything to the network. A connected freezer certainly has its advantages, but one that is not connected has the huge technical advantage of not being able to be sabotaged by someone guessing a poorly chosen password.