Hackers Hit Supermarket Freezers... Again
US supermarkets should learn what EU supermarkets won't
11/3/20262 min read
It hasn’t been that long since I wrote about a wide-spread supermarket freezer hack in France. Sure enough, supermarket chains in Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg have also been hacked, sending temperatures rising overnight in many refrigerators and freezers of dozens of stores.
Sweden’s Coop chain reported six of its stores had been affected, while ICA said a limited number of their stores were affected by an overnight incident impacting their refrigeration and freezer systems. Additionally, five Spar outlets, multiple Shop & Go convenience stores, and a number of Proxy Delhaize mini-markets were affected.
Once again, Dutch retailer, Ahold Delhaize, seems to be the victim of the cyber-attack. Last month they reported a cyber-security incident to police in the Netherlands. Sarah De Meester, a company spokesperson, said the supermarket chain had established temperatures in the cooling systems had increased, adding that the incident was being investigated.
Stephan Moelans, the chief executive of Sabcobel, which specializes in refrigeration system installations, stated, “We started mobilizing technicians at 1am. We spent all night and morning disconnecting the affected installations from the grid.”
Which again, begs the question, “Why are these units hooked up to the internet to begin with.” Refrigerators and freezers worked just fine prior to internet technology. They were probably a lot cheaper, too. It wasn’t rocket science. Buy the units, set the temperatures, and seemingly like some mysterious magic, they did their job. Online monitoring of temperatures may be a nice convenience, perhaps even smart, but what’s wrong with simply sending a maintenance person to take care of issues, should they occur, instead of trying to control temperatures and do maintenance over the internet?
The hackers managed to disable the alarm systems before adjusting the thermostats or extending the defrost program by hours. Danfoss, providers of the online controllers, said it identified security flaws last year and had “long recommended” customers install updates. Yet, despite last month’s attack in France, which affected up to 700 supermarkets, many supermarkets still failed to do so.
Stores had to discard vast quantities of fresh meat, dairy and frozen products, with many suffering losses ranging from tens of thousands of euros to hundreds of thousands of euros. European customers should be highly upset. Food is costly enough without supermarkets losing stock due to hackers. Quit thinking the ‘internet of things’ is a good idea. It’s not!
The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a formal investigation into the French attack, saying damage included “food losses and fires”, and the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, instructed France’s national cyber-security agency, ANSSI, to investigate. It turns out, that Danfoss wasn’t the only one affected. ANSSI confirmed that supermarkets using controllers from two other companies were also targeted in the attack.
ANSSI should not be necessary. Once again, the solution is simple. The aforementioned, Stephan Moelans, solved the problem by “disconnecting the affected installations form the grid.” Imagine that! All supermarkets should go “old school” by taking their cold storage units off line! It’s a free solution that’s also hacker-free.
Source used: Guardian