Investigators hunt hackers who heated French supermarket fridges, sparking fires and spiling food

French investigators on Tuesday were hunting the hackers who seized control of cooling units at hundreds of supermarkets in a cyberattack that underlined the vulnerabilities of connected systems, with no group publicly claiming responsibility.

The cyberattack, which manually overrode the temperatures at fridges in supermarket groups including Carrefour, Monoprix, Intermarche and Cooperative U, appears to have been easy to pull off, three cyber experts told Reuters.

Staff at some Paris supermarkets threw boxes full of perished meat and frozen goods into giant trash containers on Tuesday. At least 350 supermarkets — a small fraction of the total number in France — were caught up in the strike.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu instructed France’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) to investigate, a person in his office said.

France was coordinating with European counterparts because other countries could also be affected, the person said, adding that authorities were assessing whether other French companies were at risk.

Cooperative U CEO Dominique Schelcher said 80 of its stores — out of an overall group total of 2,000 — were affected.

He said he could not precisely quantify the financial impact, but added that in a smaller store it would be several tens of thousands of…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world