At Super U in French commune Mirepoix, an alarm summoned managers at 2am, but the emergency refrigeration engineer arrived at 6am. In Gradignan, a delivery driver discovered Intermarché’s flooded storeroom at 4am. In central Paris, a resident watched the frozen-food aisle empty onto a Paris street, with melted ice cream spilling from broken tubs onto the pavement. This was a literal liquidation of stock.

Hackers raised refrigeration temperatures across hundreds of French supermarkets earlier this week, with Les Mousquetaires reporting about 300 stores affected and temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius overnight for six hours. Everything affected was discarded.

French prosecutors reported food losses and fires whilst Intermarché CEO Thierry Cotillard estimated losses of “tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day”. Sekoia analyst Felix Aime said the attack also affected Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany and Belgium.

For Australian supermarkets, the scene offers a macabre example of how a refrigeration failure can affect not only stock, but also staffing and the day’s trading, putting the responsibility of supermarket managers to organise repairs and replacements while at the same time, explaining the depleted shelves to shoppers. 

University of Queensland Cyber Research Centre director Ryan Ko made a point that retailers need to know their equipment and who can access it. Yesterday he told the ABC that once inside, cyber hackers can change temperature set points across many locations at once. His explanation also identified compromised credentials, suppliers and vulnerable remote-access services as possible entry routes. 

In Australia, major supermarket chains use connected systems to monitor refrigeration across their stores, but it’s unclear how widely these systems allow equipment to be adjusted remotely.

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