For six hours, refrigeration units in approximately 150 Intermarché stores were forced to 50C, destroying massive quantities of fresh and frozen goods. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the large-scale breach targeted connected systems across multiple major food retailers, resulting in both widespread food spoilage and reported fires. Chains including Coopérative U, Carrefour, Monoprix, E.Leclerc, and Auchan were identified as being affected by the intrusion, which utilized software provided by the Danish engineering firm Danfoss.
The attack carries significant implications for food supply security and operational safety, as hackers successfully disabled critical temperature-regulation software remotely. Dominique Schelcher, chief executive of Coopérative U, described the incident as an attack on equipment essential to the preservation of fresh products and the national food supply. Retailers have been forced to remove compromised food from sale to mitigate health risks, with some chains urgently disconnecting hundreds of shops from the internet to prevent further sabotage.
Investigations are currently underway following instructions from the office of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who has tasked the national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, with leading the probe. Danfoss stated that the compromised units were older models that lacked the capacity for necessary security updates to address identified risks. As French authorities coordinate with European counterparts, questions remain regarding the scope of the incident, with the Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize also reporting a separate security issue within its own network.
While the full scale of the disruption is still being assessed, initial estimates indicate that approximately 400 stores out of the 15,000 total outlets in France were impacted. Many affected display units remained out of service as retailers scrambled to secure their systems and manage the loss of stock.