alt Hacker NewsWait, I recall reading the threads about someone speculating there was a hack. Some people suggested it could just be that a large percentage of refrigeration units received a software update at the same time which resembled a hack.
Is there a definitive story that someone actually did hack these units on a grand scale?
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This type of attack lasted few days in different countries, quite hard to believe the fridge manufacturer could keep pushing these updates after all the news around.
That's a known playbook. Stir up shit, then create an uplausible denial which will take experts some time to debunk. Once it's figured out the story was bs, put out another three. By the week end there is 10 narratives and nobody except the field experts is sure that it's the usual suspects doing the usual things, but nobody listens to those
Fwiw, the first thread I recall was a speculative blog post about commissary freezers for the US military: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508506
Now, as of November 2026, it is confirmed as a hack.
Confirmed exploits, many manufacturers, experts, …
> Is there a definitive story that someone actually did hack these units on a grand scale?
Given the scope here (see map at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_French_supermarket_refrig...), it'd either be individual hackers getting inspired from their neighbor hackers, or one actor targeting European countries.
Although seemingly the hack wasn't so sophisticated, maybe it's truly just some kids fucking around with what they see being open, and maybe just want to target European countries for the "lulz" or whatever, who knows.
There have been (at least) two separate waves to this now, which makes the "innocent broken update" speculation much less likely?