alt Hacker NewsThis 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.
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>Or to take the freezers offline if an update isn't available.
Why the heck would this be necessary? We have VPNs holy crap, the entire genesis of the technology was to solve this fucking problem. If it's not literally intended for the general random public to be able to randomly visit and use themselves, it shouldn't be exposed on the public internet it should be (heavily restricted) LAN-only with remote access done via VPN. While it's even better if every single last thing is well secured at the client-level too, it goes a long way with ancient (or new, but with ancient-equivalent software design expenditure/decisions) kit to protect it at the network level.
Creating a false binary of "take it offline!" when businesses have very good reasons for networking many classes of industrial hardware seems self-defeating vs "just get the cheap bare minimum basic network protection done". I mean shit, even if somehow they've gotten suckered into freezers which demand access to a non-self-hostable manufacturer server (hey EU! here's something useful to regulate! if nothing else order manufacturers to have WireGuard end points for connection) they could at least have the firewall allow !RFC1918 solely and exclusively to that address on those ports.
Why do supermarket freezers need to be on the internet in the first place? A freezer has one job right.. keep things cold :/
>This first happened in France over three weeks ago. It's unforgivable that many chains have failed to update their software in time.
Came into the thread thinking it would be a new report about the same incident not a new one, yikes.
To be fair, wouldn't the chains probably be reliant on their vendors for an update? and turning off all the fridges for weeks is probably not a sustainable solution... :/
Has anyone determined if these were separate from the attacks on US military PX refrigeration that happened well before that?
They deserve to get burned and should get a hefty fine as well. I'm fed up with businesses completely ignoring all basic security and then blaming culprits for hacking them.
I don't care whether it's the Russians, Chinese, Norks or script kiddies. This should never have happened, especially since a similar incident happened in France three weeks ago so they got ample time to prepare themselves. They just don't care.
Imagine they where internet exposed due to simplicity. It will take longer than three weeks to set this up. Not for you but imagine you are a store owner with 0 IT knowledge.
The issue is this needs to be handled centrally by the parent org also. They have IT ofc but they usually do POS and desktops/servers. The OT/SCADA systems are usually totally separate and not touched by the white collar IT systems.
I do work in the retail refrigeration world nowadays and "just updating the software" is much easier said than done. I'm usually touching grocery stores with 20+ year old hardware from the dawn of centralized control and monitoring. It's not s trivial thing to rip out the controllers and install new ones.
Yeah was about to say, if your a major chain this is on you
In the case of France, the vulnerability was announced in August, 2025.
I believe gigantic fines are appropriate. They need to be of a size where the entire management team has significant financial issues for many years to come, even after having sold their houses, big cars, etc.
Nothing will improve until there are personal consequences.
This very likely first happened in the USA at military commissaries in August. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-09-01/army-cid-inve...