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700 supermarkets hit, millions lost: France warns cyberattacks on refrigeration systems may still be ongoing. Edited by Yashasvi Vasistha / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Oct 14, 2026, 20:31 IST A worker restocking products in a refrigerated section of a supermarket two days after the cyberattack on several French supermarkets in Montreuil, France (AP photo) France's cybersecurity authority has warned that a cyberattack targeting refrigeration systems at supermarkets may still be underway, as stores restock fresh and frozen goods discarded after temperatures inside refrigerators and freezers surged. The agency said on Tuesday night that the attacks were "likely still underway" and urged retailers to reconnect refrigeration systems to the internet only through secure virtual private network (VPN) connections or protected networks. It also advised stores to install firmware updates and change passwords, according to the news agency Associated Press (AP). Attackers remotely took control of refrigeration systems at hundreds of supermarkets and independent stores across France in the early hours of Monday. Temperatures reportedly reached 50 degrees Celsius for around six hours, forcing retailers to dispose of fresh and frozen products. The Intermarché supermarket chain reported losses of "tens of millions of euros" in a single day. French finance minister Roland Lescure said around 700 of the country's 10,000 supermarkets had been affected, describing the incident as a "wake-up call for everyone". The attack has also raised concerns about the security of connected refrigeration equipment and the potential impact of cyber incidents on food supply chains. You May Like Older refrigeration systems under scrutiny. France's cybersecurity agency said it was aware of numerous compromises involving remote-control modules used in refrigeration systems manufactured by Danish company Danfoss and US-based Copeland. Danfoss said many of the affected systems were older products that no longer received software or security updates. Copeland said a vulnerability had been identified in "a discontinued, end-of-life generation of controllers" and that it was working with affected customers. A report published in August by US cybersecurity firm Claroty identified vulnerabilities in the Danfoss AK-SM 800A and Copeland XWeb Pro platforms, which are used to manage refrigeration infrastructure in supermarkets, warehouses and other facilities. Claroty said some Danfoss controllers were directly accessible through the public internet, potentially exposing them to attacks. The vulnerabilities identified in the report have since been fixed. Reuters quoted cybersecurity experts as saying the French attack appeared to have exploited weaknesses in older systems and inadequate security practices. The precise method used to gain control of the refrigeration equipment has not been publicly disclosed. Ken Munro, a partner at British cybersecurity firm Pen Test Partners, described the issue as one of basic cyber hygiene. "This is about basic cyber hygiene," he said. "Get it wrong and you get a smelly mess of defrosted food." A scan using the internet search service Shodan found at least 4,500 Danfoss interfaces still visible online on Tuesday. It was not independently established how many were running vulnerable software. Dutch supermarket chain resumes systems after separate incident. Meanwhile, Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn was restocking shelves on Wednesday as its parent company, Ahold Delhaize, began restarting systems that had been shut down as a precaution following a separate cybersecurity incident. The incident, which began on Sunday evening, disrupted online services, halted home deliveries and affected some supplies to the retailer's extensive network of stores in the Netherlands. The Dutch National Cybersecurity Centre said several cyber incidents had affected Europe's food sector but saw "no reason at this time to believe that these incidents are linked". The disruption highlighted the dependence of supermarkets on digital systems and frequent deliveries. Pieter Zwaan, a senior researcher at the Clingendael Institute, told AP that Dutch supermarkets relied on "just in time" deliveries several times a day to keep shelves stocked. "Without IT and electricity it is impossible to order and deliver product to supermarkets" so frequently, he said. Investigations underway, no perpetrators identified. Authorities in France and the Netherlands are investigating the incidents. Europol confirmed to AP that it was in contact with authorities in the affected countries but declined to provide further details because the investigation was ongoing. No perpetrators have been publicly identified, and no group has claimed responsibility for the French attack. François Deruty, a former operations director at the French Cybersecurity Agency who now works as chief intelligence officer at cybersecurity company Sekoia, said it remained unclear whether the attack was directed by an organised actor or carried out by an individual. "I still can't determine whether it's being directed by someone or whether it's an individual trying to take advantage of the prevailing chaos to show off their skills or send a message," Deruty said. He added that the timing was notable, as French politicians were already dealing with several issues and the disruption had a direct impact on everyday life. The French government has said the attack did not threaten the country's overall food supplies, although Lescure acknowledged that it "touches the heart of our food security". End of Article Five-star memories in Punta Cana.Not all memories feel the same. 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Giant, Stop & Shop, Food Lion websites, apps down after cybersecurity incident, company says. Dutch supermarket giant Ahold Delhaize said it was working to restore systems following what it described as a security issue Wednesday, October 14, 2026 6:30AM If you are trying to do some online grocery shopping with Giant, Stop & Shop or Food Lion, you may notice that their websites and apps are currently unavailable. Dutch supermarket giant Ahold Delhaize said Tuesday it was working to restore systems it had shut down following what it described as a security issue. The company said its stores - including Albert Heijn in the Netherlands, Delhaize in Belgium and Stop & Shop, Food Lion and Giant in the United States - remained open, but the websites for those brands remained offline. There are published reports of a cybersecurity incident at the company that owns the chains. Each chains' website says they are "working to restore service as quickly as possible," adding that customers can still place delivery orders through Instacart, DoorDash and Uber Eats. Any unfulfilled web and app orders will be refunded. The chains' pharmacies and fueling stations are also still open. Ahold Delhaize said it had no evidence that customer or employee data had been stolen. This comes as cyberattacks disrupted European supermarket chains, affecting refrigeration systems at hundreds of stores in France and forcing a major grocer to shut down websites serving customers in Europe and the United States. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told Parliament on Tuesday that about 700 of the country's 10,000 supermarkets were affected. He said there was no risk to France's food supplies but acknowledged that the attack "touches the heart of our food security." "It was a wake-up call for everyone," he said. Suppliers say French systems may have been outdated. The French government's cybersecurity agency said Tuesday it was "aware of numerous compromises" involving refrigeration system remote control modules made by Danish company Danfoss as well as U.S.-based Copeland. Danfoss said Monday that most affected systems were older products that no longer received software or security updates, and that it was working with affected customers to limit the damage. "Danfoss has long advised customers to keep supported systems updated with the latest firmware, as well as to operate behind a firewall," the company said. In an August report, U.S. cybersecurity firm Claroty identified vulnerabilities in the Danfoss AK-SM 800A and Copeland XWeb Pro platforms, which are used to manage refrigeration infrastructure in supermarkets, warehouses and other facilities. For example, Claroty said "numerous controllers" using the Danfoss system were directly accessible from the public internet, leaving them wide open for cyberattacks. But it noted that Danfoss and Copeland had since fixed the vulnerabilities. Copeland said Tuesday that a vulnerability had been identified in "a discontinued, end-of-life generation of controllers," and that it was working with impacted customers. Christopher Whyte, an associate professor of homeland security and emergency preparedness at Virginia Commonwealth University, said it's "not too difficult" to carry out such an attack. "It looks like almost certainly what happened here was these controls were left open to the broader network being used by the supermarket," Whyte said. Similar attacks on water systems, power infrastructure and other kinds of physical operations have been fairly common for years, often coming from Iran and other state actors, Whyte said. Over the summer, Minnesota and Michigan reported cyberattacks on their states' water systems. Whyte said attacks on refrigerator systems are not unprecedented. Last month, Stars and Stripes reported that three military agencies were investigating refrigeration outages at U.S. military commissaries that occurred within days of each other. The Associated Press left a message Tuesday seeking comment on that case with the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division Cyber Field Office. But Whyte said the scale of the French attack, and the fact that there appeared to be no ransom demand or stealing of information, made this situation unusual. AI could make cyberattacks more frequent, experts say. It was unclear Tuesday whether the French cyberattack involved artificial intelligence. But advances in AI have contributed to an increase in cybersecurity incidents, said Varun Chandrasekaran, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois' Grainger College of Engineering. Chandrasekaran said there's also a possibility that the attack happened because of an experiment an AI lab was doing - like what happened with OpenAI's breach of an Australian health department website last month. He said people should absolutely expect an increase in such cyberattacks in the future thanks to AI. But Chandrasekaran said AI could also be useful in preventing such hacks. "Right now it seems like a lot of the defensive countermeasures people have are quite passive," Chandrasekaran said. "What we need is a proactive defender, like another AI model sitting on the defender side that's trying to counter whatever the attacker AI is doing." Associated Press contributed to this report.