Refrigeration units warmed overnight in France
On the night of 11 to 12 October, refrigeration units in French supermarkets switched from cooling to heating, reaching as much as 50C overnight according to the Financial Times. Workers arriving the next morning found aisles of spoiled food, and fires broke out in overheated units at several stores. The FT said most of the affected shops ran a Danfoss central unit that controlled the freezer and fridge units for an entire store, and that this controller could be reached remotely. Counts vary by source. The FT listed more than 150 Intermarché and Netto stores, 80 Coopérative U stores and about 80 Carrefour stores, while Blick put the number of businesses reporting refrigeration problems at more than 350. Intermarché's chief executive has said the attack will cost tens of millions of euros.
- Freezers at Fort Huachuca in Arizona switch to defrost mode, spoiling frozen food
- Signal and Silence site suggests the base freezer failures may stem from a cyberattack
- Refrigeration units in French supermarkets begin warming overnight, reaching as much as 50C
- Cert-FR issues public alert that Danfoss remote controllers are being actively targeted
- Reuters reports the Pentagon suspects hackers caused August freezer failures at US bases
Danfoss flaw and the response
The FT reported that Danfoss had found one line of its refrigeration controllers open to unauthorised remote login a year and a half earlier, and had made software updates available. The morning after the French attack, Cert-FR, France's cyber emergency response team, issued a public alert that Danfoss remote controllers for refrigeration systems were being actively targeted. Danfoss told Reuters that many of the affected units were old or ran outdated software. Cybersecurity firm Claroty reported vulnerabilities in refrigeration controls made by Danfoss and Copeland in August, including a hidden login that could allow full control of a system. Danfoss has since released a fix.
Freezer failures at US military bases
Reuters reported on 29 October that the Pentagon suspects hackers caused freezer failures at military commissaries in August, citing four officials. At least six bases reported problems, including Fort Huachuca in Arizona and Fort Irwin in California. Freezers at Fort Huachuca switched to defrost mode on 26 August, and a base post said all frozen products had spoiled. Reuters established the outages from posts on base Facebook pages and websites. In at least one case, temperatures rose sharply overnight rather than the units simply stopping.
Investigators and open questions
The Pentagon said its Cyber Command unit was working in close coordination with other agencies and law enforcement partners, described as "working in close coordination with interagency and law enforcement partners". Army criminal investigators, including an Army cybercrime unit, are in contact with French counterparts to clarify the circumstances of the refrigeration failures in Europe. Reuters could not establish how far the Pentagon inquiry had progressed, whether it had reached conclusions, or who was behind any attack. Records for Naval Air Facility El Centro in California list a Danfoss control system, but Reuters could not establish whether the commissaries used Danfoss equipment. The vulnerabilities do not show they were used in either incident, and the Pentagon has not confirmed that anyone gained access.