Hundreds of French supermarkets have been hit by a cyber attack that triggered their fridges and freezers to heat up, spoiling recent and frozen food estimated to be price tens of millions of euros.
Hackers reportedly gained control of the software program that regulates the temperatures of the refrigeration models, forcing some to heat to 50C (120F) in a single day.
The chief government of Coopérative U said several of its supermarkets had been hit by the “extremely serious and unprecedented” attack.
More than 100 of the chain’s supermarkets were focused, while at least 300 shops from Intermarché and its Netto model were affected, according to the AFP information company.
Intermarché said its fridges had heated up to 50C for six hours in a single day into Monday, and the retailer had thrown away all the affected food to keep away from health dangers, the Reuters information company reported.
Some grocery store employees reportedly said they were hit by waves of scorching air when they opened freezer models on Monday morning.
French broadcaster BFMTV printed an image exhibiting a freezer in an ice cream aisle displaying a temperature of 26.5C.
Two supermarkets in the Alsace area reported losses of €270,000 (£228,000) between them, the broadcaster added, that means the nationwide whole could run into the tens of millions.
The Paris prosecutor’s workplace informed AFP it had opened an investigation into the incident, which it called a “large-scale cyber-attack affecting the refrigerators of several major food retail chains across France”.
Eoropean Food Commissioner Christophe Hansen condemned the hack in a post on X and added: “Food security requires more attention at all levels. Because the weaponisation of food has become a reality.”
The full scale of the attack is so far unclear.
Reports in specialist retail and native media said shops from other food giants, including Carrefour, E.Leclerc and Monoprix, were also attacked. BBC News has approached the grocery store chains for remark.
In a post on X, Coopérative chief government Dominique Schelcher said employees were “fully mobilised, in co-ordination with refrigeration specialists, to restore the situation as quickly as possible”.
He called for an investigation into the hack and said focusing on gear important to the French food provide was “unacceptable”.
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