It is still unclear who is behind the incidents and whether the attacks are all connected or being carried out by multiple actors. The first recent wave of attacks against French supermarkets in October appears to have been caused by attackers exploiting unpatched refrigeration controllers exposed to the internet – including software versions that allegedly used weak passwords formulated based on the date.Many of the hacks stem from attackers exploiting vulnerabilities in temperature controllers made by the Danish firm Danfoss, and researchers say the attacks would not have been particularly difficult to pull off. Danfoss did not return WIRED’s request for comment.In other statements, Danfoss said impacted systems “were running outdated firmware” and urged customers to keep products updated. In an alert last Thursday addressing the rash of incidents, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said attacks could exploit flaws in cold storage systems via authentication bypasses, arbitrary code injections and weak configurations. Experts have long warned about the dire threats to critical infrastructure posed by these types of weaknesses in so-called internet-of-things devices.Russian hacktivists tried to claim responsibility for some of the attacks but did not provide credible evidence. Still, some researchers see signs that Russia-based actors may have been involved in at least some of the incidents. The Kremlin denied involvement. In other cases, researchers have found potential ties to Iran-linked actors. NextGov/FCW reported on 29 October that unnamed US officials suspect Iran-linked attackers may have been behind the freezer attacks on US military bases, though they noted that the investigation is still ongoing.This type of refrigerator/freezer attack is not new. Back in 2022, 16 supermarkets in Russia were targeted at the start of the country’s full-scale war with Ukraine. That year, 40 stores in Israel were similarly attacked, according to a 2025 report by Danfoss.“Many businesses use older technology while the systems become increasingly connected,” Sweden’s National Cyber Security Center pointed out in a recent advisory about the freezer attacks, noting that companies should inventory which of their devices are connected to the internet, disconnect them whenever possible, and make sure they are kept access-controlled, patched and monitored if they must be connected.This story originally appeared on WIRED US.
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