Security · October 15, 2026
Hackers Compromise Refrigeration Systems, Spoiling Food in Hundreds of Supermarkets
Cybercriminals compromised refrigeration systems, spoiling food in hundreds of supermarkets. The attack targeted controllers from the Danish company Danfoss, remotely altering temperature settings to 50 degrees Celsius. Retail chains affected include Intermarché, Coopérative U, Carrefour Market, Monoprix, Leclerc, and Super U, impacting between 250 and 350 stores and resulting in significant financial losses and food spoilage.
The intrusion occurred on October 11, when hackers accessed the refrigeration controllers operating on outdated software versions from Danfoss. The temperature in the refrigerators increased after the activation of the built-in automatic defrosting system.
Les Mousquetaires reported that Intermarché and Netto took all necessary measures to quickly remove products from shelves for fresh and frozen items. Coopérative U's president, Dominique Schelcher, noted the breach of refrigeration equipment in several stores.
The Paris prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the incident to identify victims and establish links between the events and reported losses related to food spoilage and potential fire hazards.
Currently, there is no information on how Danfoss controllers were compromised. Last spring, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned about an authentication bypass vulnerability, and in the summer, about a command injection vulnerability in the Danfoss AK-SM 8xxA Series hardware platform, used for managing cooling, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in the food retail sector.
Claroty's research group Team82 described how these vulnerabilities could be exploited for remote code execution on public management interfaces of Danfoss AK-SM 800A. Predicta Lab identified over 2,750 Danfoss systems accessible from the Internet, with approximately 1,590 located in France. The Shodan search engine tracks over 4,500 Danfoss devices available online.