Widespread suspected cyberattacks targeting European supermarket freezers have raised questions about whether a comparable event could unfold in the U.S. Following an incident in France last month, in which authorities said refrigeration units at hundreds of supermarkets were hijacked, causing food losses and even fires, suspected cyberattacks involving sudden increases in freezer temperatures were reported in several other European countries, including Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, Estonia, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The Pentagon has also been investigating a string of freezer malfunctions at U.S. military bases in August as suspected cyberattacks.
A spokesperson for the Army Criminal Investigation Division told Newsweek it was working to understand the incidents in the U.S. and Europe with other government agencies and French law enforcement. As of publication, officials had not identified those responsible for the European hacks. When those connections aren’t properly secured, they can give attackers a way to interfere with systems that grocery stores depend on every day.” Tufts said refrigeration controllers are not limited to food storage but are also used by hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, water utilities and data centers.
He recommended securing essential remote access with strong authentication, reviewing default passwords, updating supported equipment and segmenting critical systems to limit the effects of a breach. These devices were often not produced with security in mind, and they typically do not receive updates to help fix security vulnerabilities.” Ward said that although there has been a major effort over the past decade to increase awareness of device vulnerabilities in manufacturing and critical infrastructure, related sectors such as refrigeration manufacturing “have not been considered in the discussions at large.” “With all this being said, I do believe the overall risk of a coordinated attack at scale is relatively low, considering the time and resources necessary to pull off an attack of any significant scale. I think it is more likely that we see issues like the recent Iran attacks on water infrastructure, where devices that are directly connected and accessible to the internet become low-hanging fruit for attackers looking to make a quick impact.
Chris Butera, acting executive assistant director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Cybersecurity Division, told Newsweek the agency and its government, industry and international partners were actively monitoring and assessing malicious cyber activity targeting refrigeration and cold-chain monitoring systems. Newsweek also reached out to several major U.S. retailers for comment on Wednesday. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes, Gray R.
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