alt Hacker NewsSupermarket freezers in Belgium and Sweden hit by suspected cyber-attack
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Also hit a few smaller business in The Netherlands: https://nltimes.nl/2026/11/02/fridges-freezers-17-dutch-busi...
With the following interesting quote from the supplier of the system:
After that attack, Danfoss advised its Dutch clients on October 13 to disconnect their systems from the internet and ensure they only reconnect via a secure network. “Most stores took action at that time, but a small number did not,” the spokesperson said. “They are now the ones suffering the consequences.” The spokesperson added that the systems hit last night were not on a secure network and were still using default passwords. The attack could have been prevented if measures had been taken, he said.
Back in 1995 this was so improbable it was one of the purported negative effects of the "Good Times" virus which was a parody of the virus warning e-mails that were being forwarded around at the time. Computers still can't give you Dutch elm disease, fortunately.
> It will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all your ice cream goes melty.
There was an interview with an angry store manager, he's mad at the attackers, but I didn't hear the media ask him why they didn't improve security after the French attacks. Only now do they appear to want to start a review of their monitoring system.
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/icas-kylar-och-frysa...
If you definitely need to connect them to the internet, make them read only?
I was talking yesterday to my AI imaginary friend about creating an MCP for one of my apps, and the first thing she told me was to make everything read only. No matter how many security layers you have in place, passwords, auth libs, whatever, it will be leaked/hacked so you better be prepared for minimum damage
Monitor your freezers temperature? yes, but never allow their thermostat to be set over the internet. I hope the lesson is learned. Applies to all appliances
It's a really a bad thing ... It's not the first time that these kinds of attack hit the European markets. So I ask to myself why in earth managers don't learn from the bad experiences of other countries/people.
Similar thing in Estonia: https://news.err.ee/1610183296/hackers-raised-freezer-temper...
I've fantasized a long time about a clearer separation of technology from life, since it's been depicted in some ways I appreciated in fiction. But at this point, I'd just take a set of laws around what types of items should ever have any sort of networking.
Ireland too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50335252
Maybe we should stop connecting things to the Internet that don't need to be?
Discussion from 3 weeks ago on the refrigerator "hacks" in the french supermarkets:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50055304 (~1000 comments)
Thats interesting something similar happened at military grocery stores in the US a couple months ago
Instead of pointing the finger at supermarkets we should point it at ourselves. Why the hell is anything computer related still so difficult? Even in this thread I see varying advice like airgap, VLAN, or VPN. Well which is it?!
We keep blaming store owners for not being IT wizards.
Will the insurance pay out on this? It would be negligent to have this exposed to the internet - was it?
It happened in France on 12 October: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crq5nzxv9q4yo
i know some of us are thinking "if you consistently fail to ensure your ability to make high-severity security patches reach critical internet-exposed systems on time you lose your ability to operate the business and probably get jail time"
but what about the deranged (and very prediction market–brained) version of this idea: the government develops ransomware, in a manner functionally similar to towing cars or confiscating illegal items, and uses it against companies in proportion to their revenue and obviously puts the money towards improving the ransomware
"the r in rsi stands for…"
i'm not sure it's something i want to see, but i don't know if it's impossible for it to actually come to pass or merely unlikely
(of course, cross-government versions of this are much more likely to come about but not as ransomware)
This is exactly the kind of thing we've all been warning about ...
(... in hacker forums)
Why the fuck does a freezer need access to the Internet in the first place?
... Who the fuck is putting this shit on a network that's not closed circuit?
It truly feels like Europe is just collectively shrugging at their lack of preparedness and aggression they face. What’s it going to take for them to take their own security seriously?
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This first happened in France over three weeks ago. It's unforgivable that many chains have failed to update their software in time. Or to take the freezers offline if an update isn't available.
I now read some interviews with local chains in Sweden and Finland, and they were still just investigating what to do at this point.