Overview
- The campaign began on the night of Oct. 11–12 when unknown actors took control of refrigeration in hundreds of French supermarkets, forcing chains to discard chilled and frozen goods.
- On Nov. 2 attackers manipulated cold rooms at three Établissement français du sang sites but independent alarms alerted staff and no blood products were compromised.
- This week local police in Bavaria reported attacks that heated restaurant and butcher coolers to about 150 °C and a supermarket to roughly 50 °C, producing five‑figure local losses.
- Security researchers and France’s ANSSI say the intrusions exploited controllers left directly on the internet, outdated firmware and default or weak passwords and they recommend isolating devices, using VPNs, installing independent alarms and adding mechanical overheat cutoffs.
- Investigations are active in multiple countries with no public claims or ransom demands so far and experts warn the same vulnerabilities threaten labs, pharmacies and vaccine storage if operators do not harden systems.